143 Meals for Local Foster Families

Dec 23

Article by WFMZ. Click HERE to watch the TV News Report on this heart warming story! A special THANK YOU to MADJ Marketing for buying 100 of the meals and to our 24 PopUp Hosts during our Children’s Home of Reading Family Meal PopUp Challenge for the remaining 43 meals.

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MUHLENBERG TWP., Pa. – On a side street in Muhlenberg Township, numerous area restaurants dropped off hot meals purchased by people who wanted to help let foster families take a night off from cooking.

"It's a great organization," said Virginia Danner, a foster mother. "This is amazing, just in the time of Christmas, to be able to give back to the foster families that give so much to the community with helping the children."

In some cases, it's foster families helping foster families, with Do It Local Berks and Threads of Change getting together to serve as the pickup spot for the latest pop-up.

"It's small families that are stepping up and helping," Danner said.

Organizers say the event to feed foster families just days before Christmas is ultimately a sign that the need exists year round.

"The children are still being placed. It doesn't matter if it's a holiday or what day," said Angi Horne, cofounder and executive director of Threads of Change. "So these families, to have a meal they don't have to cook and they can just have, it means a lot to them."

Foster families get provided hot food for the night — and local businesses get a boost.

"The opportunities are endless," said Heather Brady, cofounder of Do It Local Berks. "It's really fulfilling. Truly still helping our restaurants who are still bouncing back. I mean, another rough year they had and now some staffing issues."

Even for a night, a hot meal can mean a lot for foster parents and the kids in their care.

"I had one mom that she said she was in tears because she, just everything going on, she didn't have to cook that one day," Horne said, "that one day she didn't have to cook just really made a difference to her."