A sampling of the foods the Cornucopia project provides to the needy.
Flowers and cornucopia provided by Lynda Tatara of The Blossom Shoppes in Boynton Beach.
Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
INSET BELOW: Sherry Johnson
Cornucopia program delivers holiday meals to those in need.
By Jan Norris
More than 250 families will have a complete holiday dinner on their tables for Thanksgiving this year, thanks to the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach — and a whole community of volunteers.
The CCC’s Cornucopia program, now in its 12th year, depends on donations of food and money as well as volunteer time from a number of community organizations to fill and distribute the Cornucopia “baskets” of foods to needy families. “We strive for 250 baskets,” said Sherry Johnson, director of the Boynton Beach center that also runs the Secret Garden Café. “But we’ve been so blessed — in some years, we received food from R.J. Gators and other places, and exceeded that number by hundreds. We served as many as 890 families one year.”
The number of filled baskets is usually around 325, she said — and figuring for families of four, that’s a minimum of 1,300 people fed during the project.
“We give them the food — a voucher for a turkey, ham or chicken — and the basket of rice, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, celery, onions, gravy packets. They’re able to put together a traditional meal, cooked at home to their liking,” she said.
Jill Clemens of Boynton Beach, a caretaker for an elderly friend, has been unable to find full-time work. She received a Cornucopia basket to help feed her son and her father last year and will again get a basket this Thanksgiving.
“It really helps a lot,” she said. “They give you a bunch of veggies and other food, and a voucher for a turkey.”
She’s able to to stretch food for several meals, and often can get both a small turkey and a ham with the voucher, making for even more meals.
“I’m having a hard time, taking care of the elderly gentleman, getting him his infusions and take care of whatever he needs at his apartment, so this is a big help to us,” she said.
The recipients are chosen by application which are accepted from mid-September through mid-October. Donations come in from all over, thanks to involvement with areawide food drives like Project Thanksgiving and Food for Families.
Sandra Vanegas works with Johnson as the coordinator of the Cornucopia program at CCC. She also works to help coordinate the dozens of families that receive food and other aid from the center throughout the year.
“We do take applications from others, but we want to make sure our own clients are taken care of before we open it to the needy beyond our community.”
Vanegas said the Palm Beach County Food Bank helps a number of other centers and organizations who help feed the needy, and the center coordinates with them and local congregations to make sure everyone highlighted as needy gets a holiday meal.
Churches and synagogues put out the call from the shopping list, and they take up a collection, sometimes for a specific food — say, a case of onions or canned green beans.
“Seniors at Sterling Village donate in lieu of their 85th birthday gifts,” Johnson said. There are Red Hat societies, woman’s clubs, fire departments, sports leagues and others who get together to donate. “Rorabeck Produce usually donates the celery and onions — those are sometimes the hardest to get,” she notes.
The city and its workers are important to the program as well, she said. “Lori Laverriere (city manager) and her staff, and Karen Abramson in the library are wonderful supporters of our efforts.”
At the library, the program “Food for Fines” provides donations to the baskets in lieu of fines for overdue books.
She’s always in awe, she said, at how it all comes together from so many sources. “If you put it out there that you are going to provide for 250 people, you watch how God strikes his hand to provide, and you realize how blessed we are.”
The most important item for donation is the turkey, Johnson said. Monetary gifts of $10 go to buy vouchers from Publix, WalMart and Winn-Dixie.
The foods and voucher are sometimes enough to help a struggling family eat through the next month, she said.
A youth group that changes each year volunteers to help put together the foods donated. The organization and packing takes place Tuesday morning on the week before Thanksgiving.
“St. Mark’s Catholic School kids are ones who have done it in the past,” she said, but she’s happy to spread the work to teens in need of community service hours or other youth groups looking for a community-based project.
The baskets are filled, then arranged in the parking lot at the center the following weekend, and recipients arrive to pick them up.
Johnson said other help comes from church groups who identify those in need and recommend them for the Cornucopia program. “We work with the Greater St. Paul A.M.E. — a lot of my staff are volunteers from that church.”
Any leftover foods are then distributed on a first-come, first-served basis from the center on the Monday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. If a significant amount is leftover, it is saved for Christmastime distribution in similar baskets.
They also work with the Big Heart Brigade from the north end of the county to distribute cooked meals to shut-ins.
Prepared foods for those who are unable to cook are picked up by Johnson and other volunteers, and distributed to the church groups, who take them to the homes of the shut-ins.
The majority, however, are in the form of ingredients for a home-cooked meal. While the basket has most traditional foods, and are not altered for dietary restrictions — “One size fits all,” she said — recipients can vary the flavors to their tastes.
While some organizations dish out cooked meals for turkey day, Johnson says giving them ingredients for their own, and allowing each family to cook their favorite dishes is key, since “there’s nothing like mom’s home cooking for the holidays.”
How to help
The Community Caring Center puts out the following wish list for items to include in its Cornucopia baskets. To be included, donations are needed by Nov. 17.
• 500 cans of green beans and/or cranberry sauce
• 250 boxes of stuffing mix and/or mashed potatoes
• 250 packets of gravy mix
• 250 (1-pound) bags of rice
• 250 cans of pumpkin pie mix and/or sweet potatoes or yams
• 250 bunches of celery
• 250 (3-pound bags) of onions
• 250 $10 turkey vouchers
Volunteers are needed to pick up foods, organize the baskets and help hand them out at the CCC on Nov. 22.
For information, contact the Community Caring Center, 364-9501, Ext. 22 or 25.
Money donations can be mailed to the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach, 145 NE Fourth Ave., Boynton Beach, FL 33435.
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