Helping Hands Provide Holiday Meals

Hundreds of families enjoyed a holiday meal thanks to the generosity of various local organizations and businesses. As you can imagine, it takes countless volunteers to make it happen.Boxes of Love assembly line

Louisville Water employees were grateful to participate in two programs providing the special meals.

Boxes of Love took over part of Fourth Street Live! last week. An assembly line of volunteers filled bags with canned vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, cornbread mix, cake mix and frosting, and other items. Each bag was boxed up, leaving space for a holiday ham.

The event has been a tradition for the last several years for Local 1683 President Adam Carter.

Boxes of Love assembly line

“Louisville Water and Local 1683 showed out once again this year volunteering our time to Boxes of Love. This program provides underserved families in our community a hearty meal to celebrate the holidays. It is a great way for us to give back all while realizing how fortunate we really are during the holiday season!” Carter said.

 

On Friday afternoon, people lined up at 18th and Broadway to pick up a ham along with a bag of fresh collard greens and sweet potatoes.

West Louisville holiday meals giveawayLouisville Water President & CEO Spencer Bruce, Vice President of Human Resources Terrence Spence, and Vice President of Compliance & General Counsel Michael Tigue joined Reverend Gerome Sutton who organized the giveaway.

Word spread quickly about the free meals. A steady stream of people passed by the table and some drivers even pulled up to collect their blessing.

“Seeing the happy faces and everybody’s happy about receiving the ham and greens and sweet potatoes. It really made their day,” said Louisville Water Accounting Specialist Veronica Thompson.

It was a familiar sight for the Louisville Water leaders, who served up meals last month during the Thanksgiving meal giveaway.


“There’s a lot of people that struggle this time of year. We want to help in any way we can,” Bruce said. “You want people to enjoy the holiday season and we’re glad to help. When people come up and say ‘thank you’ and ‘Happy Holidays’ and ‘Merry Christmas’, it’s just a great thing.”


West Louisville holiday meals group photo

That feeling you get when giving back to others is why Thompson volunteered at both Boxes of Love and the west Louisville meal event.

“I really enjoyed helping out the community this year,” she shared.

Afterall, ’tis the season for giving!