The process of getting food is an arduous one for Greenwood resident William King.
A felony in his past means he isn’t eligible for food stamps. He must walk to food pantries to get his meals, with an oxygen canister on his side. Along with difficulty breathing, he suffers from nerve damage in his spine and a deteriorating hip. He must also trek to the CVS on Smith Valley Road from his apartment near Main Street to pick up his medication.
Christmas dinner was a pipe dream, but on Saturday morning, he wiped tears from his eyes as he opened a box of food, funded by Good Cheer Fund donations leading up to the holiday. The box contained milk, eggs, oats, rice, muffin mix, bacon and a loaf of bread.
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Across the street, his girlfriend, Michelle Hecker, also got the delivery.
“We’d been fretting over it wondering if we would have Christmas dinner,” Hecker said. “It ended up we’ll have Christmas dinner. (King) woke me up and said ‘I just got a phone call, you might want to answer it.’ They said ‘we’ll be there in a few minutes.’ It’s the difference between having dinner or not. I have food stamps, that’s less than $200 a month, basic foods and that’s it.”
King and Hecker are two of 265 individuals and families in the Greenwood area who received food boxes from the Good Cheer Fund of Johnson County as part of an annual tradition that helps some of the county’s least fortunate residents. More baskets will be delivered today in Franklin and rural Johnson County for a total of 800 food baskets.
On Friday night, volunteers in Greenwood helped sort canned goods and nonperishable items, distributing them into the boxes. Then, on Saturday morning, refrigerated items such as milk were packed by more than 50 volunteers, who then loaded the boxes into their vehicles and delivered to a list of addresses. That effort was coordinated by the Johnson County Fraternal Order of Police.
More food was sorted in Franklin on Saturday.
Of the volunteers were nine members of the Indiana Astros little league team. Greenwood police Sergeant Jason Holtzleiter is the father of one of those players, and said the volunteer opportunity was all about teaching perspective.
“We like to come out and volunteer, to show the kids that there’s much more than baseball,” Holtzleiter said. “It’s giving back. A lot of these people are happy, overjoyed when they get these baskets. Some of them are surprised. You can see it on their face when you deliver to them.”
One of the apartments the little league team delivered to was in the Valle Vista area, where Randi Blacklidge cradled her five-month old baby.
“It’s been extremely hard, it’s a big blessing,” Blacklidge said. “It makes things a lot easier, now I can actually help with my family to give food because this will be for me, my family, my boyfriend’s family, we try to share. I wouldn’t be able to without it, he’s been unemployed actually, it helps out a lot, we’ve been struggling.
“I love seeing the kids help out. When I get better, when we get in a better place I want to do the same and help out in the community.”
Not too far from Blacklidge, Jane McAvoy was surprised by a delivery to her house. McAvoy hasn’t been able to work since May, and has undergone a plethora of surgeries, broken bones, concussions and a near heart attack. She said she cannot get food stamps until she obtains her marriage certificate from Texas in order to change her ID.
“I only get one check a month to cover rent, insurance, utilities and then it’s gone,” McAvoy said. “It’s a wonderful gift. It’s about to make me cry, seeing those wonderful-faced children, it’s a joy to see them.”
