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12/08/2021 07:00 AMWe all belong to a family. We have immediate families and extended families. We also have work families, church families, and social families. We live in a community made up of many diverse families. Five years ago, Families Helping Families became aware of the fact that some of our community families weren’t celebrating one of the true family holidays—Thanksgiving.
That’s when we started a program called The Full Thanksgiving Table Effort. We wanted every family to have a Thanksgiving Day where families could gather together to celebrate the blessings of the day. The goal was to make sure that Thanksgiving was just not another Thursday in their lives. We provided each family a $25 gift card to a local supermarket and purchased a large amount of fresh produce, which was given out through the Clinton Food Pantry.
The effort has grown into a full-fledged community effort and this year 339 supermarket gift cards were given out and 2,450 pounds of the freshest produce was made available to those families. Many of the individual families that make up our town joined us in our quest to make sure every family had a full table this Thanksgiving. The companies of The Clinton Manufacturing Coalition—Argo EMS, Kenyon International, Preferred Foam Products, and Roper Thermals—joined our efforts. The Clinton Lions Club, who always helps in our community, also lent its support.
Through this community-wide support, this past Thanksgiving was a true holiday celebration and not just another Thursday. In our town, we take family responsibilities very seriously and when there is a need, the entire community rallies to make sure the need is met. We are so proud and blessed to live in a very special town called Clinton, Connecticut.
Miner T. Vincent, President
Families Helping Families