Avala Feeding the Needy Platinum Sponsor
Avala is a proud platinum sponsor for the Covington Rotary Club’s Feeding the Needy initiative. We were honored to be able to attend the fundraising luncheon this afternoon with guest speaker U.S. Senator John Kennedy. Our contributions are assisting in the delivery of more than 1,500 cooked turkey dinners that will be delivered Christmas morning to area families in need.
About Feeding The Needy
Feeding the Needy was founded in 2002 by John Baldwin and Craig Babylon to provide food on Christmas day for families in need on the Northshore. John and Craig shared the idea with Deacon Skip Graffinini, who was the executive director of The Covington Food Bank, which is now The Northshore Food Bank, and learned that The Food Bank was servicing sixty to sixty-five families at that time.
A decision was made to move forward, and the project was named “Feeding the Needy”. The Covington Rotary Club was approached for support and special focus was put on providing food for the school children who, during the holidays, do not receive the meals they receive at school and depend on as their main source of nutrition.
Each year on December 23 and 24, volunteers from all over the area come together to prepare Christmas boxes that include a 14 to 16-pound cooked turkey with numerous side dishes and dessert. Each box has enough food to feed a family of four to five with larger families receiving additional boxes. Deliveries are made to families throughout the Northshore area including St. Tammany, Washington and Tangipahoa parishes
On Christmas morning, Rotarians and other community volunteers hand deliver the boxes to the homes of the identified families. Each family only needs to heat the food and it is ready to serve as a substantial Christmas Day meal and have left overs to help on the days leading up to school reopening.
