(Major Glasco and other staff and volunteers filling trays with meals.)

A Hot Christmas Meal and Warm Wish For All

775 meals delivered to shut-ins Christmas morning!

HARTFORD – The Salvation Army of Greater Hartford prepared and delivered 775 meals on Christmas, with the help of staff and nearly 200 volunteers. This Holiday Meals Program is now a well-established Hartford tradition, started in 1970 so that shut-ins would have a hot meal on the two days each year that the Meals on Wheels program does not operate, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Volunteers started arriving around 8:00 to check in, select routes, and enjoy coffee and pastries as they waited for the “staging” to begin. There were many familiar faces in the room, as well some new ones as the tray-filling action begun. If these individuals and families were not delivering hot Christmas meals in Hartford… what else would they be doing on Christmas morning, other than regretting why they did not help serve meals this year?

Furthermore, “the volunteers do so much more than serve a hot Christmas meal for individuals in need,” stated Major Brian Glasco, Greater Hartford Area Coordinator. “The meals are not only brought to each recipient’s home, but time is also spent with them to add a touch of care and concern during the holiday season. Our volunteers are helping to break the cycles of both loneliness and hunger during the holidays; they provide hope for so many. We are truly blessed to serve on such a wonderful morning,” said Glasco.