St. Aloysius Church Thanksgiving Dinner Basket Drive, Jackson, is an outreach program which supports and complements Monmouth and Ocean County charities by providing complete Thanksgiving dinners to local families in need. 

Catholic Charities in Tinton Falls is new to the list of charities this year benefiting from the collection.   Since its inception, the number of dinners donated and distributed has risen annually from 701 in 2008 to a record number 922 dinners collected and distributed this year. As each dinner basket serves some five family members, the donations this year enabled more than 4600 people to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner.

This event, conducted the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving, would not be possible without the help of over 150 volunteers who give of their time willingly, preparing bags to hand out at weekend Masses, traffic control for food drop off, emptying cars and re-sorting donations to ensure that each dinner is complete, and delivering these dinners to various local charities and agencies.

John Murphy, who started and co-ordinates this huge program, said, “All in all, the St. Aloysius Church Thanksgiving Dinner Basket Drive is both a family and community outreach effort that draws not only St. Aloysius parishioners as volunteers and donors, but it is also an effort that brings together others from the Jackson community as both volunteers and donors to serve those in need.”

St. Aloysius Parish was recently honored by Catholic Charities for their outreach program and this wonderful event shows the extent to which parishioners will to go help others and why they were so deserving of receiving the Light of Hope Award 2011. 

For more information on St. Aloysius Parish please visit www.saintaloysiusonline.org or call the parish office at 732-370-0500 ext. 204