Davis Street Brings Turkeys, Toys to Local Families

Volunteers at the Davis Street Family Resource Center scrambled over the weekend to organize and bag a mountain of goodies for nearly 2,000 local kids, in a rush to prepare for the center's annual holiday giveaway this week.  

For more than 20 years, the resource center has been serving the community—including Ashland, Cherryland and San Lorenzo—with an annual holiday drive. Executive Director Rose Padilla Johnson led an enthusiastic group of volunteers and partners from all over the Bay Area as they organized food donations and packed goodies for kids of all ages.

"Toys are sorted by volunteers into gender and age-appropriate groups and then placed in gift bags," Johnson said. "We are going to try to give each child three new toys but are afraid that we'll not have enough for the nearly 2,000 children on the list."

Bikes, basketballs, Barbie dolls, teddy bears and board games have been collected by an array of local organizations. When it comes to toys, though, the Alameda County Fire Department is a huge help.

"If it were not for the efforts of the fire department, we could never offer the toy program," Johnson said. "The ACFD makes it happen. They are like the cavalry – they collect the toys, contribute chickens, and [provide] the manpower to distribute to 100 families."

After tiptoeing my way through the toy room, I walked into the pantry to find local volunteers wheeling shopping carts down aisles packed with food.

Experienced volunteer Joseph Nervis filled me in on the action.

"What we're basically doing is organizing donations by type and putting them where they need to go, it's like a little grocery outlet." Nervis explained.

In the flurry of activity, some volunteers were stocking shelves while others filled boxes for needy families.

"There are family boxes and single boxes. Family boxes will get full packages of food while singles will get less. It all depends on how big the family is," Nervis said. "On Tuesday and Wednesday, people will come and pick up their boxes."

Brian Hughes from Fremont Bank came prepared, bringing a team of 30 volunteers to help sort and pack food for the center.

"This has been one of our largest turnouts," Hughes said. "We're a group called Fremont Bank Team Heroes. We go out into our communities to do jobs for nonprofits—we've been doing it for about five years now."

Their signature green shirts are testimony to the work the Team Heroes put into helping Bay Area communities, whether it is painting or boxing up food for families.

"We've been collecting food for the past few weeks throughout our branches," Hughes said. "We really look to tie in what people can do for local nonprofits like Davis Street to serve our community."

At Davis Street, gift cards for older children, new toys and turkeys are especially in demand this year. Help do your part by donating to Davis Street today and check out how you can volunteer.

The mountain of food and toy packages will be distributed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Patch will be on the scene with the volunteers and members of the Alameda County Fire Department, so stay tuned.