Over the past 28 years, the Thanksgiving Box Project has evolved from the simple collection of bags of groceries to a well-oiled machine that provides as many as 300 turkeys and boxes full of Thanksgiving trimmings to families on Cleveland’s west side. Through a partnership with Scranton Road Bible Church, Parkside’s service and generosity has helped provide both nutritional and spiritual nourishment to our neighbors in need.

“[The Thanksgiving Box Project] is not just a food pantry,” explains Tracy England, founder of the project in partnership with Pastor Joe Abraham at Scranton Road. “We’re an outreach program that spreads the gospel and Christ’s love. I’m sure there are lots of food bank programs out there, but this [project] is unique in the fact that we are personally delivering these meals to people’s homes. It’s a very intimate gesture for a lot of people.”

Tracy recalls one story from Parkside members, The Cusamanos, who volunteered to deliver boxes. “Dr. Cusamano and his wife used to tell a story of how they got invited into a sweet older woman’s home. It was the very first box they were delivering. She sat them down for tea and visited with them for two hours. They prayed with her and then they went home,” says Tracy. ”That’s the sort of touch we’re going for, not just,  ‘Hi, here’s some food.’”

Groups who deliver the boxes are encouraged to pray with the recipients and Tracy also remembers the story of one gentleman was so impressed by the heartfelt intensity of prayer that he received from the group that he started attending Scranton Road’s men’s Bible study.

But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not reserved for the recipients of the meals. For many Parkside families, the process of preparing a box, delivering it to church, and seeing it delivered to the families in need, provides an excellent way to train up serving. “We’ve also made really good lifelong friends through serving with this project,” says Tracy, whose family has participated for the past 28 years. “We started out at Solon High School with just a little Honda Civic hatchback with enough room for maybe 10 bags of groceries. People would help out and say, ‘Hey, I have a station wagon, let’s load it and we’ll follow you to your house.’ We eventually became lifelong friends from doing a project and working together. It’s a very bonding thing when you actually do spiritual work together.”

Ways to Help

Prepare a Dinner Box
Collect the items listed on our website, ideally in a box roughly 12" x 18" with a lid, and drop them off in Storage Room 111 across from The Venue on or before Friday, November 20.  According to Tracy, boxes can be “beefed up” with additional items, such as: coffee, tea, candies, soup, jellies, sugar, nuts, flour, crackers, cereals, canned meats, peanut butter, tissues, toothpaste and toiletries. However, please include only non-perishable food items. Sorry, NO homemade canned goods.

She also asks that items are placed in a closeable box, but do not tape it shut. “We need to go through each box to make sure all the items are okay and get distributed appropriately,” explains Tracy. Also, since the boxes need to be stacked inside the delivery trucks, smaller, tightly packed boxes are better than large boxes with loose items spread out in the bottom.

Money for a Turkey
You can also make a contribution to help cover the cost of the turkeys. Please write “Box Project” on the memo line of your check and drop it in the offering plate. Please do not put it in your dinner box.

Load the Truck
Strong backs are needed Saturday morning, Nov. 21, to help load dinner boxes into trucks at Parkside at 8am sharp! Please call Tracy at (330) 562.0721 if you can help with this stage. She needs approximately 15 volunteers.

Help Distribute the Meals
Join us on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10am-12pm, at Scranton Road Bible Church for the distribution. No need to call, just meet us at Scranton Road Bible Church, 3095 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, 44143. For directions to the church, click here.

For more information, please visit our website or contact Jacque at jrplatek@parksidechurch.com or Tracy at teengland@yahoo.com.