CCAP delivers 600 holiday baskets thanks to grant, donations

By Thomas Greenberg
Posted 11/22/17

By THOMAS GREENBERG Getting 300 loaded Thanksgiving bags to Cranston residents is no easy matter, but the Comprehensive Community Action Program (CCAP) delivered once again Saturday. So many people showed up when the doors opened at 10:00 a.m. that the

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CCAP delivers 600 holiday baskets thanks to grant, donations

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Getting 300 loaded Thanksgiving bags to Cranston residents is no easy matter, but the Comprehensive Community Action Program (CCAP) delivered once again Saturday.

So many people showed up when the doors opened at 10:00 a.m. that the line was overflowing out of their Doric street location as Mayor Allan Fung, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, Cranston Police Explorers, and CCAP employees handed out the full Thanksgiving meals.

CCAP delivered another 300 bags to residents across Rhode Island on Monday during their annual Thanksgiving program.

The baskets included Thanksgiving staples like mashed potato mix, canned cranberry, and the big turkey, as well as some everyday essentials like cereal. The estimated cost of each bag is $45.

According to Lee Beliveau, Vice President of development and corporate affairs at CCAP, the funding for CCAP’s food program, of which this holiday giving campaign is one of the biggest, comes from a House grant awarded by Speaker Mattiello of $5,000 as well as $5,000 in gift cards from corporate sponsors.

Another massive help was an anonymous donor who single-handedly paid for 300 baskets.

“Cranston takes care of Cranston,” said President and CEO of CCAP Joanne McGunagle. “When food shelves are getting low around here people respond.”

Those responses have allowed CCAP to partner with charitable organizations like the Rhode Island Food Bank and deliver to 600 families for Thanksgiving and give out another 400 bags for Christmas. CCAP will also be holding adopt-a-family in December.

“Poverty is often silenced,” Chief Operating Officer William Hochstrasser-Walsh. “Events like these bring it to the forefront.”

Helping bring this event to the forefront was Mayor Fung, who was in CCAP’s basement Saturday morning alongside Speaker Mattiello handing out the meals.

“I’m so thankful for CCAP and their continued commitment to helping so many individuals in need during this special holiday time,” he said. “The fact that we’re able to provide a helping hand to the faces and individuals that come in here so that they can have the joys [of the holiday season] is very meaningful and is what makes our community so special.”

Also helping to give the bags to the hundreds of Cranston residents were Captain Vincent McAteer, Kena Delem, and former West student Derek Annbese of the Cranston Police Explorer’s program, who partners with CCAP for this holiday giving season.

Providing holiday meals is just one in a long line of charitable actions that CCAP does, as they provide services of all kind to Cranston’s residents in financial need from housing, counseling, family support, and child care to health care and job training.

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