Christmas Basket program begins season

Union County people are being encouraged to donate goods and funds to the annual Christmas Basket Fund.

The program will conclude with the distribution of baskets from 9 a.m. to noon, Dec. 14 at the Food Shelf, 301 N. Elm in Creston.

Monetary donations can be left at the Creston News Advertiser, 503 W. Adams. Donations can also be made through PayPal. Using a smartphone, organizers said people can open the camera app on their phone, hold their camera over the QR code and a web link will pop up to click on and it will take the donor directly to the Christmas Basket donation portal. The QR code is the graphic included in this story.

It can be anonymous if they choose and they can include a personal message also.

The Christmas Basket fund will also have $10 certificates in the baskets for perishable food items that can be redeemed at Hy-Vee, Fareway or Walmart, all in Creston.

According to the Food Bank of Iowa earlier this year, 344,550 persons (10.8%) do not know where they will find their next meal. That includes 110,500 children. The annual meal gap in Iowa is more than 64.7 million meals. Additional money required to meet the state’s food needs would exceed $245.9 million. The Food Bank provides goods to various food pantries in southern Iowa. Food Bank of Iowa distributes more than 2 million pounds of food each month to 700 partners across 55 Iowa counties.

The Creston News Advertiser plans to run weekly updates about the Christmas Basket donations through the season to encourage people to give.