Cayman’s ARK is gearing up for its 5th annual “Giving is Receiving” Christmas food and gift outreach. The Cayman community has proven every year to be incredibly supportive and generous. During the months preceeding Christmas, ARK provides food vouchers for those who have little or nothing to eat. However, at Christmas we reach out to the whole community as most people and businesses like to contribute to blessing others at Christmas time.

Giving is Receiving kicked-off on Friday 22nd November and runs through Friday 13th December.

The food and gifts will be sorted, packed, wrapped and distributed to families on our growing list. These are families who are desperately struggling and unable to provide food and gifts for their children. Many of the names are given to ARK by those working in the school canteens, local churches, the crisis centre, government schools and other organisations that work closely in the community.

The goods collected will be sorted and repackaged by volunteers, tailored to the specific needs of the families and distributed along with a food voucher of around $100.

Tara Nielsen of ARK said the impact of the recession and increased unemployment means social services are stretched to the limit and there are more families living on the breadline.

Last year the campaign helped feed 150 families. The aim this year is to provide support to around 250 families.

There are many more families in need of the service than the campaign can provide for, so all goods collected will be used

For some of the children, the presents they get through the ARK campaign will be the only ones they receive.

The first phase of the ‘giving is receiving’ campaign involves people collecting ARK’s blue bags from the Camana Bay Discovery Center and returning them filled with a list of essential items, ranging from laundry soap and diapers to crackers and sugar. Shoppers also have the option to buy a Christmas present for a child. People can collect bags from Camana Bay now.

You can contact ARK on 323 2287, on Facebook or e-mail [email protected] if you would like to get involved in this project. We will then make arrangements for bags to be delivered to your location.

In gratitude,

Cayman’s ARK Team

Please see attachments for more details.