With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, the Human Services Department hopes that residents and organizations will adopt a less-fortunate family for the holidays. Families can invite a family to their home for a holiday meal, fill a food basket or make an anonymous donation to Human Services to pay for a grocery store gift certificate.
"We know there are a lot of families in need," said Janet Turnbull-Krigger, administrator for the Human Services Department’s Children and Family Service program.
Human Services is getting the word out early in hopes of increasing the number of people who adopt less-fortunate families.
Last year, 102 less-fortunate families had a holiday dinner with a host family, received a food basket or got a gift certificate, Turnbull-Krigger said. This year she hopes to increase the number of families to about 120.
The less-fortunate families are those served by the Human Services Department, spokesman Monife Stoutt said. The department matches the less-fortunate family with the host family.
According to Turnbull-Krigger, a brainstorming session led to the Adopt-A-Family idea. While many people think of gifts when it comes to holiday giving, feeding families is important, she said. Thanks go to the community and her staff for making the program a success, Turnbull-Krigger said.
For more information, call 773-5303 on St. Croix or 774-4393 on St. Thomas.
