The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Needy families not assured holiday toys, food

Nannie, left, talks with her case worker from St. Raphael, Sarah Day, who is trying to help her become more self-sufficient. Nannie, a single mother of six, is one of the families that signed up for the holiday adopt a family program.

Staff photo by Greg Lynch Nannie, left, talks with her case worker from St. Raphael, Sarah Day, who is trying to help her become more self-sufficient. Nannie, a single mother of six, is one of the families that signed up for the holiday adopt a family program.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Graphic: Number of needy families in Butler County increasing PDF

Goodcents opens in West Chester Twp.
2/12/12
'Powerball' numbers from $325M jackpot
2/12/12
Hamilton grad featured in racial legacies series
2/12/12
Education strong determinant with work success
2/12/12
Middletown Y director called ‘very solid leader’
2/11/12
> More headlines

By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer Updated 12:46 PM Monday, November 2, 2009

HAMILTON — The Hamilton mother of six is unemployed and was homeless last month.

So the thought of providing her children Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and toys under the tree for Christmas seemed impossible.

“I’ve struggled for many years with Christmas. My brother had bought gifts for them every year, but he’s been laid off, too,’’ said Nannie, who asked not to be identified further to protect her children. “It’s a struggle every year with six kids.’’

Nannie is now a client of Mercy Franciscan at St. Raphael and, like many others, is hoping to get a boost this Thanksgiving and Christmas from donations to the Butler County Holiday Community Project.

The holiday project is a group of nine nonprofit agencies that rely on sponsors to help provide food and toys to struggling families.

But because of the recession, a record number of families are expected to register for help at a time when many would-be sponsors are struggling. So far, the number of needy families seeking sponsors for food baskets and Christmas gifts is up 74 percent compared to the same time last year.

Tina Osso, director of Shared Harvest Foodbank in Fairfield and coordinator of the holiday project, fears the number of needy families may again outpace sponsors of the project.

“For the first time last year, we were not able to serve everybody that applied and that was just as the recession was beginning to hit hard for everybody,” Osso said.

“Now that we’ve had a year of it, we’re very concerned that we’ll be able to raise the resources for it because so many more families are going to need help.’’

Carrie Morris, director of St. Raphael, said her agency was inundated with families seeking holiday help when registration began.

“We turned away roughly three to four times as many people as we saw,’’ Morris said. “We’ve had lines every year, but this year just blew us away.’’

Holiday project officials expect to serve more than 3,000 this year, up 15 percent from last year when officials served 2,600.