Our food drive was a success! After church today several teams drove around the neighborhood picking up grocery bags filled with non-perishable food. We are very happy with the response and hope to continue to run food drives like this one in the future. We distributed bags last Sunday in the neighborhood around the church, and returned today to pick up the loaded bags. Thank you to everyone who participated by distributing bags, donating food, or picking up!

Tomorrow we return to pick up grocery bags for the hungry! Last Sunday we distributed 75 bags to our neighbors around the church. We hope for a good return, so if we left a bag on your porch, please leave it out for us to pick up tomorrow morning by about 11:30am-12:30pm or so. If you are worried about freezing temperatures, you may either bring it to the church tomorrow, next Sunday, or Christmas Eve. We will be out in the neighborhood for about an hour picking up bags.

Advent, the season of the church year leading up to Christmas, is a busy time for everyone. There’s shopping, wrapping, writing cards, cooking, and visiting to be done, and very little time to do it in. There often seems to be little time left over for the needy, the hungry, or even ourselves.

This Advent season, do something for others, and for yourself. Take time out from your busy schedule to do something good.

Yesterday, members and visitors to Holy Innocents dropped off 75 grocery bags with shopping lists at the doors of homes in the neighborhood surrounding the church. Attached to the bags were shopping lists and an invitation to Christmas Eve services. The shopping lists read:

Please help us gather food for the hungry and the working poor in the Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg area. Shop for the hungry, and place food and toiletries in this bag. Put it out at your front door Sunday, December 11 by 1130am. We will pick up bags that day.

If you are unable to leave a bag out for pick up, you are welcome to bring it to the church the following Sunday, or on Christmas Eve.

Particularly needed:
? Canned Corn
? Canned Fruit
? Ramen Noodles
? Canned Meats
? Hot Cocoa Mix
? Boxed Potatoes
? Jello & Pudding Mixes
? Chunky Soups
? Tuna (canned and ?ready to eat? packages
? Toothpaste
? Bars of Soap, sample sizes of toiletries, etc.
? Chili (boxed or canned)

Also useful for people with limited cooking facilities:
? Crackers or other flatbreads, rice cakes
? Dried fruits and nuts, trail mix
? Juice boxes
? Canned or evaporated or ultra-pasteurized milk
? Mini-boxes of cereal (the ?makes its own bowl? kind)
? Plastic flatware/napkins

Thank you for helping to feed the hungry!

We will return to pick up bags next Sunday, and hope that our neighbors will leave the bags out on their front porches so that we may quickly pick up the donated items.