RED BANK – Each holiday season Lunch Break, Monmouth County’s first soup kitchen and pantry, and so much more, experiences a transformation and becomes Santa’s Workshop by undertaking a huge holiday operation to provide gifts for hundreds of the neediest children from Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Through its adopt-a-family program, new and age-appropriate gifts are distributed to kids from newborn to those 15 years of age. That is made possible because of the generosity and kindness of Lunch Break’s good friends and neighbors who, in 2013, brought smiles to the faces of more than 1,500 children.
The hope this year is that the wishes of even more children can be fulfilled.
Beginning Thursday, Oct. 9, those interested in helping can visit Lunch Break to select a family to adopt. Because of construction, Lunch Break’s temporary administration offices are now at 103 Drs. James Parker Boulevard, one block east of the Lunch Break dining room.
Sponsors will find each child’s wish list of three gifts or, in the case especially of the older children, gift cards for a variety of retailers, movie theaters and restaurants.
Sponsors can shop for the gifts and bring them unwrapped to Lunch Break to be given to the family or provide Lunch Break elves with the funds to purchase the gifts on your behalf.
Those who want to take part don’t have to adopt a whole family. Lunch Break gladly accepts donated gifts or gift cards (pre-teens and teens love those gift cards), not attached to any particular child or family. The gifts will be used to fill or complete holiday bags for the children.
For those who are shopping for an adopted family(s), the unwrapped gifts must be returned to Lunch Break by Friday, Dec. 5, at its Tinton Falls warehouse, located at the end of the access road just off Shrewsbury Avenue, next to the Armed Services recruiting center, behind the WOW gym. Drop off times are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.
Parents and guardians of the children then will gather at Tower Hill Church on Saturday, Dec. 13, where Lunch Break will distribute the gifts donated by all the kind and generous Secret Santas who have participated in this year’s efforts to make happy holiday memories for the children of Lunch Break.
The holiday season seems a long way off, but it will be here sooner than you think. Lunch Break is asking its friends and supporters to share the joy of the season again this year through their Adopt-A-Family program, or by donating gifts and/or gift cards.
Additional information is available by contacting Sharda Jetwani, program director, at 732-784-7360 or online at sjetwani@lunchbreak.org.
To learn more about Lunch Break and its extensive programs, activities and events, visit www.lunchbreak.org, call 732-747-8577 or email to info@lunchbreak.org.
