A Wrightstown family and the founders of the charitable organization, The Gigi Project, are hard at work making sure the hungry have meals during the coronavirus crisis. This weekend, they also used the effort as a nice distraction to help spread Easter cheer.
Kelly LeDonni, whose family established the Gigi Project as a way to give back following the premature birth of their twins, said they’re working with the Caring For Friends charity to help feed the hungry during the pandemic.
LeDonni said each month, the St. Martin of Tours parish in New Hope hosts a gathering where dozens come together and make about 1,000 meals to be distributed by the nonprofit Caring For Friends organization.
However, this month, coronavirus prevented the gathering from happening. But the need for meals has only increased. So to ensure the organization could help feed those in need, the LeDonni family asked local friends and to help make and donate meals to the cause.
Over the past weekend, her family collected 84 meals from those in the community who stepped up to help.
And since it was Easter weekend, they decided to have some fun when they went out to pick up the donations.
“We’ve had many people make and freeze meals over the last couple of weeks and we have to go and pick them up, so we thought it would be great to do it dressed as the Easter Bunny,” LeDonni explained.
The meals will be dropped off to the Caring for Friends warehouse in Philadelphia and from there, volunteers will drive them to individual houses across the five Philadelphia-area counties.
In 2019, the Caring for Friends organization served 1,500 people weekly but the coronavirus crisis has driven up the need. Now, the number of meals needed weekly is up to more than 5,000, LeDonni said.
She added the Gigi Project has raised and donated $4,278 to help three local non profits: Caring for Friends; Bucks County Emergency Homeless Shelter; and Support Homeless Veterans.
