Basket delivery helps local families

Having moved from Florida only two months ago, a family of four was struggling to make ends meet while getting settled in.

Elizabeth and Jimmy Coleman decided to move to Greenwood with their two young children so that he could get a better job. But with the expenses of moving and getting settled in a new community, they haven’t always had the funds to get everything they need for their family.

When volunteers with the Good Cheer Fund of Johnson County, Brittany and Matt Floyd, showed up at their doorstep Saturday morning with a cardboard box filled with an assortment of food, it was a welcome sight to Elizabeth Coleman and her two kids.

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Dozens of volunteers, many from local law enforcement agencies, spread out across northern Johnson County on Saturday, delivering the gift of a good Christmas meal and canned goods to families in need.

The 250 boxes were filled with canned goods, a ham, eggs, cheese, bread, bacon and were delivered with milk and potatoes. Volunteers at Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church rushed to finish packing the boxes on Saturday morning before volunteers loaded them in their cars, vans and trucks to make deliveries.

Each box was filled with about $55 of purchased perishable food, along with canned goods donated from local schools.

For the Coleman family, this turns what may have been a sad Christmas into a happy one, Coleman said.

They were nominated to receive their basket through North Grove Elementary School, which their two children, Megan, 5, and Sean, 7, both attend, she said.

This winter was the first time either of their two kids experienced snow, which had them outside making — and knocking down — snowmen.

Coleman has stayed at home to care for her kids for the first few months since moving, but hopes to get a part-time job in January so she can work while her kids are attending school, she said.

Sean and Megan were eager to help their mom unpack the box Saturday morning, and were just as exciting to see a package of cookies at the top.

Coleman is grateful to be part of a community that is able and willing to help those in need, she said.

For a family of 12 living under one roof, the gift of food was well-received.

Diane and James Morris share a four bedroom home with their five children, three grandchildren and two of their daughter’s boyfriends. They too got connected with the Good Cheer Fund through the school system.

With her husband receiving disability benefits and her at home to care for her youngest children, making ends meet is difficult, she said.

“I wouldn’t know where else to turn to,” Diane Morris said.