By Liz Ferrell, Development & Community Outreach Specialist
For many years HOPE Family Health has allocated a portion of the HOPE Assistance Fund (HAF) for one of its most rewarding endeavors: the HOPE Christmas Blessings Project, which provides food, clothing, and toys for patients nominated by providers and other staff to receive extra help during the Christmas holidays.
Long-time HOPE employee Jessica Gregory (or Jessi, as we know her) has participated in this “extracurricular” Christmas project for five years and served as the project team leader for the past three years – an often difficult but always rewarding endeavor.
“The money comes out of the HOPE Assistance Fund,” Jessi said. “The money is donated by individuals and organizations that donate specifically for HAF because they know it goes back to the patients. … This year HOPE helped 20 families out of the 31 families that were nominated,” she added, noting that the tab for their shopping trip totaled $2,161.34 – just under budget.
Like most projects that help those who are hurting financially, the need is greater than the resources.
“It’s always hard to choose, but we look at certain factors to help us decide how to prioritize,” Jessi explained. “Did we help their family as part of last year’s Christmas Blessings project? Have we already helped them through the HOPE Assistance Fund in 2024? Are there children in the household? These are the things we consider.”
Every family received a box that included nonperishable food items, detergents, and hygiene products.
“One recipient is currently living in a hotel, so her box included hygiene products and detergent,” Jessi said. “One gentleman requested fresh fruit and vegetables, so even though we typically provide only nonperishable items, we were able to fill his special requests. Another patient was recently diagnosed with cancer and recently received a port and a feeding tube, which interfere with lifting and driving because she drives a manual transmission. She had specifically asked for Ensure and Gatorade. She received a food box as well as two boxes of Ensure, and she was very appreciative.
“We decided how much to spend on each family on the size of their household,” Jessi continued, noting that a single person only getting a food box was allotted $75, while households with more than one person received boxes costing up to $300. “Some families had one child; some had three,” Jessi explained. “They received a food box as well as toys, clothes and shoes, and clothes and shoes for the parents, as well.” This year’s families included thirteen children ranging in age from 13 months to 17 years.
Each of the eleven committee members was assigned a HOPE department to make sure the list of recipients included patients from each department – medical, behavioral health and pharmacy – as well as from all three HOPE locations: HOPE Westmoreland, HOPE Westside in Macon County, and HOPE Gallatin. Team members donated wrapping paper and other Christmas supplies; one staff member brought in gently used clothes and toys that her child had outgrown. They shopped for groceries, toys and clothes for appropriate size and gender, wrapped gifts and boxed up food, and ensured each family received their box.
“We wrapped all the toys, so if the parents didn’t have the time or means to wrap gifts, we took care of it for them,” Jessi said.
Some patient stories and reactions:
She lives in a single-wide trailer with a handicapped ramp, located in a field with only a “pick path” for a driveway. Nearly crippled with hip issues, she credited her HOPE provider – Janice York, at HOPE Westside – with giving her hope that she will get the insurance coverage and treatment she needs to see her health issues resolved. “If it hadn’t been for Janice helping me get to appointments with my specialist, I don’t think I’d be walking at all,” she said. “I don’t know who nominated me, but this is going to help so much.”
He had arrived at HOPE’s door even before the Christmas Charity Team returned from their shopping trip and was waiting in the lobby. Jessi told him to wait in his car and the team would bring his Christmas box out to him. Once assembled, three members took his boxes to him. “I don’t know why y’all would do this for me,” he said. When Jessi explained that someone from his HOPE care team had probably nominated him, he said, “I’m just so humbled. … I’m just going to sit in my car and cry because I don’t know what to say. I thought it was going to be a little food box and it took three of you to get it out here to the car.”
The couple has three children, ages 9, 2 and 1. When the parents came to pick up their care boxes, containing clothes and toys for the kids and food for everybody, they said, “Y’all don’t know how much this means to us and how much it’s going to help us.”
Several volunteers joined their efforts with the Christmas Blessings Committee: Stephanie Upton, Medicare Enrollment Specialist with Upton Solutions; Jessi’s daughter Jerrica Williams; and fellow HOPE employee Keshia Troutt.
“It takes a lot of thought, planning, arrangements and work in advance to make it go smoothly, to get nominees and choose the recipients, to make arrangements with Walmart and our finance department, and scheduling,” Jessi said. “And then the shopping, wrapping and delivering are all a lot of work. Walmart shut down a whole checkout lane for us, which was nice.”
“Everybody who served on the committee or volunteered worked hard,” she concluded. “It’s a joint effort. But it’s really gratifying in the end, and always worth it.”
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