By Joey McWilliams
DURANT – The holiday season is here and each year during this time, the Salvation Army gives food to many families who may come up a little short.
This year again, Green Spray Food Center in Durant is providing a way for local people to have a direct impact in their giving.
When customers are buying their goods at Green Spray, they can ask to purchase a basket as well. The cost is only $4.99 per basket and people can buy as many as they would like
Jordan Sullivan, store manager, said this is the second year for the Durant grocery store to offer this opportunity to give to the community.
“The Salvation Army is putting together baskets for around 500 families and we are helping raise money to purchase their items, so we are selling $4.99 sacks that buy a bundle of goods for individual families so the Salvation Army can pass them out,” Sullivan said.
“When you come in and you are getting your groceries, or if you just want to stop in specifically to buy one of these, you can purchase them at the register. We can add that to your transaction or you can just buy one of the sacks for the families.”
Green Spray will take care of getting together the food baskets for the Salvation Army to distribute. All a person needs to do at the store is buy one or more. It will show up on the receipt as a Salvation Army purchase.
Sullivan said the store started the basket sales right around Thanksgiving this year and mentioned what the families who receive them will be getting, including different canned vegetables – green beans, corn, peas, sliced carrots, mixed vegetables – and then mac and cheese, stuffing, cake mixes, gravy mix, instant mashed potatoes and hamburger helper.
Michelle Armstrong, a cashier for Green Spray, said this was a good cause and spoke about her role as she gets to share the opportunity with people.
“I let them know that people are in need at Christmas and they need to eat dinner and I ask them to donate $4.99,” Armstrong said. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”
There is still a little more than a week to buy these baskets and help the Salvation Army to directly help local people.
“We just hope that everybody in the community supports this cause,” Sullivan said. “It’s a great fundraiser for the Salvation Army.”
