LAPLACE – The deadline to help us with our fourth annual L’Observateur “Food for Families” program is this coming Tuesday, Dec. 18, and unfortunately there is a similar trend to most past years.

“It’s the same thing each year,” L’Observateur Publisher Kevin Chiri said. “We always get so many requests for help, and yet the donations don’t usually help us cover them all. Hopefully we will see the community make a big push to bring us food or monetary donations on Monday and Tuesday and help us reach our goal.”

Just a few of the requests submitted to L’Observateur give an indication of the needs:

“Severe illness with huge medical and RX bills. Low income for gifts and food.”

“Single grandmother raising grandson.”

“This lady really needs help for her and her grandchild. She is on a fixed income of $643 a month and has to get clothes and food for both of them. She really does her best for this child.”

“Single mom with four children.”

L’Observateur’s “Food for Families” program is in its fourth year and trying to do something during the Christmas season to help those who are less fortunate.

“Many groups do a great job at Thanksgiving with food baskets helping a lot of people, but the truth is that most of those same people could sure use a little extra help a month later at Christmas, and that’s why we picked that time to do our food program,” Chiri explained.

We are asking you to help by donating non-perishable food items, or bring in monetary donations that we will use to purchase food, and we will in turn use 100 percent of those donations to give food to needy families.

The employees at L’Observateur do all the work for the program, including boxing and delivering the food personally to those in need.

On Saturday, December 22, employees, family, and friends of the newspaper will personally deliver food boxes created from all the donations.

Individuals or businesses that would like to participate may bring monetary donations, or non-perishable food items, here to the L’Observateur office at 116 Newspaper Dr., just off Hwy. 44 (old Main Street).

Anyone who would like to nominate a family or individual for a food box can fill out the form at the end of this story and send it to the address listed above.