The season of giving is here, and North County Families Helping Families encourages people to help each other by paying it forward.
NCFHF’s Facebook page has helped families in need for the past five years. For the last two years, the page has hosted the Thanksgiving Dinner Drive to provide meals to those in need of some extra support.
Monika Saenz started the NCFHF page five years ago to “pay it forward” after her family received some great kindness from a friend.
“Right then, I kinda knew I wanted to do something where I could pay it forward, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to afford something to that extent,” said Saenz. “I didn’t quite know what or how I was going to do it.”
Later that year, around the holiday season, Saenz mulled around the idea of creating a Facebook page.
“I thought of this page, and I had no idea if it was going to work or how successful it was going to be,” Saenz continued. “The first year, we helped 35 kids with Christmas.”
Saenz’s Facebook page became a place of solace for many. The page is where anyone can let down their guard and ask for help. Whatever that help might be, food, diapers, clothing, you name it.
Members of the group reach out on the page, listing donations they have or can say, “Hey, I want to help, how can I do that?”
Administrators of the page can anonymously post for those who are uncomfortable to ask themselves or match up volunteers with someone who needs some extra help.
“It’s amazing the amount of people that just help with no questions,” remarked Saenz.
For this year’s Thanksgiving Drive, the North County Families Helping Families page asks for help sponsoring meals on the big turkey day. This could be gift cards for groceries or supplying a Thanksgiving meal.
So far, 13 families have been sponsored for Thanksgiving.
“I love this time of year. It’s so much fun,” said Saenz
The page is still looking for sponsors for the Christmas Toy Drive. As of now, there have been 73 children sponsored for the toy drive.
But, there are 15 children still in need of sponsorship this Christmas.
Sponsoring a child for Christmas could mean donating gift cards, toys, or clothing.
It is the season of giving, and this year people may need a little extra help.
“Especially right now, I think it’s so important that we just need to take care of each other. Just help each other when it’s possible,” Saenz said.
Join the Facebook page North County Families Helping Families to get involved.
