Help for the Holidays

Wally Wagoner, left, gets some help unloading donated food from his wedding from James Ponder, a volunteer, right, at the Interfaith Emergency Services Reuben Brawner Center Warehouse Food Pantry on Northwest 2nd Street in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Interfaith Emergency Services in nearly out of food and is in dire need of donations even before the start of the holiday season this year. Wagoner, who got married to his bride, Anne, on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, donated numerous items of food and other items from their wedding when they asked guests to donate to Interfaith in lieu of wedding gifts. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

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Posted November 5, 2021 | By Beth Whitehead

This might be the year you realize you are not able to afford that doll for your daughter or remote-control car for your son. Or, it may be the year you realize you can not only afford to buy gifts for your loved ones but you also have a little extra to buy a present for someone else’s child.

The needs are great throughout Marion County and opportunities to extend a helping hand are numerous. Check out these ways to spread the holiday spirit over the next couple of months.

Salvation Army Ocala/Marion County

The Salvation Army offers numerous services, such as the Angel Tree program, homeless shelter, food pantry, emergency overnight housing, family shelter, clothing closet, assistance with payments such as rent or electricity bills, nursing home ministry, Evangeline Booth apartments for low-income seniors and community dinners.

Community dinners are offered from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily at the Center of Hope at 320 NW 1^st Ave. for anyone in need. There will be a special holiday meal at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day and another on Christmas Day.

The Angel Tree program gives the community an opportunity to provide toys to 1,000 Marion County children ages 12 and younger from low-income families. Angel tags with the child’s first name, age, gender and toy wish hang on Angel Trees in the Paddock Mall and the Sonny’s BBQ at 4102 E. Silver Springs Blvd. People also can pick up tags at the Salvation Army Center of Worship complex at 2901 NE 14^th St. from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and, starting Not. 20, at every Walmart location in Marion County.

Families that apply for a gift for their child via the Angel Tree program receive a Thanksgiving food box that includes a turkey and a box for a special Christmas meal as well.

However, Maj. Marion Durham with the Salvation Army says that people do not have to wait until Angel Trees are in the stores to receive help. Anyone can visit walmartangeltree.com to fulfill a request and have the items shipped to any area.

To volunteer with processing toys or to donate call (352) 629-2004.

Interfaith Emergency Services Inc.

Interfaith Emergency Services serves around 500 households a week for those who are at or below, or just above the poverty line—a family of two living on $30,000 a year or an individual living on $17,000 a year. Interfaith, as the agency is best known, offers assistance with groceries and prescriptions, government issued IDs, obtaining OSHA-approved work boots, entering shelter programs or with a new apartment, and providing showers and clean clothes to the homeless.

The campus at 435 NW 2nd St. is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Interfaith partners with Brother’s Keeper which runs a soup kitchen on the campus, where anyone can get lunch 365 days a year.

For their shelter residents of around 50 families, Interfaith partners with The Twilight Cruisers car club, which puts on the annual Toys for Kids Cruise In, set for Dec. 4 at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. With the proceeds, Interfaith sets up a store for parents to come and “shop” for their kids.

This holiday season Interfaith is giving turkeys or gift cards for turkeys to as many families as they can. People interested in helping this outreach can drop off nonperishable food or turkeys at the warehouse on 2^nd Street any day of the week or donate at other local food drives that support the agency. Online donations can be made at iesmarion.org.

To learn more, call (352) 629-8868 or go to iesmarion.org

Toys for Tots of Marion County Florida

Toys for Tots offers free toys for children ages 0-12 from low-income families. Upon a parent providing proof of assistance, residency in Marion County, the birth certificate and Social Security card of every child, Toys for Tots provides a quality toy and stocking stuffers for every child in the program. Toys for Tots served 11,000 kids locally last year during the pandemic.

This year, Toys for Tots Marion is trying to supply a minimum of two toys—one a more special toy like a remote-control car or unique doll, along with stocking stuffers like Matchbox cars and small toys for every child.

To request a toy for your child, go to ocala-fl.toysfortots.org and click on the “Request a Toy” button, look up your zip code and contact the agency connected with it. That partnering organization will then arrange a date with Toys for Tots for you to come pick up your child’s toy.

This year, Toys for Tots also is partnering with Winn-Dixie, which is donating 200 bikes to the Ocala branch.

As the age limit may be extended in certain communities, a yearly need locally is especially for boys and girls ages 0-2 as well as 8-12.

Volunteers are needed in maintaining the long list of partnerships on the website. Monetary donations can be made on the website as well.

For more information, call (352) 390-3457.

Help Agency of the Forest Inc.

Based on the campus of Ocklawaha Bridge Baptist Church, the Help Agency of the Forest is a ministry available to anyone who lives in the Ocala National Forest area. The Help Agency maintains a food bank open 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday, along with a back-to-school program for kids, a summer camp and vocational training.

This holiday season, the agency will be handing out hundreds of Thanksgiving food baskets for families and organizing a couple thousand Christmas boxes for children of low-income families. The boxes include toys, blankets, pajamas and shoes. Last year, during the pandemic, the Help Agency met a need that had grown by almost one thousand kids and delivered 2,500 Christmas boxes to the Forest area alone.

For every child that is signed up to receive a box, the Help Agency tries to give a Christmas ham to each family

Donations can be made on the Help Agency website, sozokids.org, or through their partner Toys for Tots. The agency office is at 14148 E. State Road 40, Silver Springs. To learn more, call (352) 812-9158.

Food for Christ, Inc.

This family-run ministry in McIntosh offers phone counseling, application assistance or help with computer work, small-scale transportation to doctors and help with shopping trips. Every third Thursday of each month, Food for Christ holds a food giveaway at the McIntosh Grocery Store. There is also a 60 Plus program for USDA available on the same day with prepackaged food for everyone in the program and from Marion County. Every month, to fill a gap in the lack of meat in many food drives, Food for Christ holds a meat giveaway, gifting seven or eight packages of meat to families each month.

During the holidays, Food for Christ partners with Toys for Tots. Volunteering consists of helping process toys from Toys for Tots and helping hand out food at the giveaways once a month.

The ministry provided the number 352-591-6097 to seek assistance or for volunteer opportunities. Food Giveaway is located at 20675 9th St., McIntosh.

Marion County Sheriff’s Office:

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) supports the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranch year-round and provides a Thanksgiving feast on the holiday. The MCSO collects turkeys, stuffing, canned beans, corn, yams, etc. Publix donates money to purchase the turkeys, but the bulk of donations have come from employees at MCSO, with a few outside contributions from volunteers and businesses. For Christmas, the MCSO adds toys to the list of their donations to the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranch.

Find more information about the Marion County Sheriff’s Office at marionso.com.

Bring the Harvest Home

Bring the Harvest Home is Marion County’s annual holiday food drive that helps local food pantries restock during the increased need of the holidays. Donations from Bring the Harvest Home benefit Interfaith Emergency Services, the Salvation Army, and Brother’s Keeper. Check out the Marion County website for a list of needed items and drop off locations.

Find more information at marionfl.org/our-county/bring-the-harvest-home

Silver Springs Shores Resource Center

The Silver Springs Resource Center offers the opportunity for those in need to access a used computer, especially for programs such as the ACCESS Florida application. Every week, the center offers bread, pastries and pizza—whatever they have received from Publix or Pizza Hut—on Tuesday nights. The center is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at 463 Emerald Road, Ocala. For more information, call (352) 687-0350.

Love In the Name of Christ (INC) of the Heart of Florida

Love In the Name of Christ (INC) of the Heart of Ocala is a ministry that seeks to enable people to get out of their financial struggles by teaching them life skills. Through a program called Journey, Love INC teaches skills like boundaries, finances and how to move on from the past.

Love INC also offers an infant and toddler pantry that provides wipes, diapers and baby gear, as well as a transportation ministry that provides some auto repairs and occasionally a donated vehicle. The outreach also boasts a personal care ministry, teaching people personal hygiene and providing household cleaning products, and a birthday box ministry. Help budgeting rent or utility bills and small temporary assistance with grocery bills or car repair is also offered but assistance is typically onetime until a person joins the Journey program.

People involved in the Journey program are provided a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner if they choose to participate. Parents are taken to Walmart and are given a budget of $75-150 to shop for Christmas gifts for their child with a volunteer. For those not in the Journey program, Love INC refers people to partnering churches for holiday baskets.

The clearing house and offices are located at 15797 S. U.S. 441 in Summerfield. The Journey program is held at Tricounty Baptist Church, 38405 Rolling Acres Road, Lady Lake. To learn more, call (352) 245-8774.

Brother’s Keeper

A ministry of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, Brother’s Keeper operates a thrift store open 9 a.m. to 3p.m. Monday through Saturday, an emergency services office open 9 a.m. to noon Monday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and a soup kitchen serving bagged, to-go lunches every day from noon to 1 p.m.

One month before Thanksgiving, Brother’s Keeper collects money to buy bags of groceries for 250 needy families to cook a full course Thanksgiving meal. The soup kitchen collects enough food for a Thanksgiving feast and serves around 450 meals. For Christmas, Brother’s Keeper collects food and toys for more than 300 families, including about 600 children, and donations to buy each family a Christmas ham.

Donation of foods such as boxed macaroni, canned vegetables and dessert mixes, along with toys like preschool play sets, scooters and baby dolls, are appreciated. See bkocala.org/holiday-assistance for a full list and other details, or call (352) 629-1292. The soup kitchen is on the campus of Interfaith Emergency Services, at 435 NW 2^nd St.

St. Theresa Social Services

St. Theresa Social Services, a program of St. Theresa Catholic Church, seeks to help anyone in need through services such as utility payments, rent, emergency short-term motel stays, employment assistance, help for the homeless and other financial needs. A holiday clearinghouse outreach coordinates agencies, charities, volunteers and churches desiring to help out families especially during the holidays, with toys, meals and other items.

The office is at 11528 US 301, Belleview. Contact Social Services at (352) 345-1359.