ATLANTA — Volunteers with Atlanta nonprofit Hosea Helps are loading up and giving out food and toys to those in need this holiday season.
Channel 2′s Audrey Washington was with volunteers in southwest Atlanta, where volunteers said they hoped to help about 500 people during the holiday.
At Hosea Helps, the volunteers made the organization headquarters a buzz of activity as they prepared meals and gifts for people in need.
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It’s a yearly tradition for the organization.
Volunteers gave out food and toys to kids and families this holiday season.
For one volunteer, feeding the hungry is not just helpful, it’s also personal.
“This is the back room,” Jonas Ho, a volunteer, told Washington. “This is where all the magic happens.”
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Ho once had nowhere to call home. He shared his story with Channel 2 Action News while helping prepare meals for those in need.
“All the food is going to our homeless encampments, our shut-in clients,” Ho said. “I don’t talk about it much, but when I was 17, 18, I struggled on the streets and Hosea was there to help.”
“And over here with the bread and the stuffing,” Ho showed Washington. “It’s going to go into our trucks and were going to go into our homeless encampments.”
On Christmas Eve, Channel 2 Action News watched as volunteers prepared meals and packed hundreds of bags filled with toys for kids and families.
Each bag represented a family that will get holiday supplies.
“Toys for 600 children leaving this place and going to homes with volunteer power,” Hosea Helps CEO Awodeli Omilami said, describing the efforts of the organization. “We’re taking care of homeless families living on the streets and families living in hotels. We’ve got about 250 to 275 hot plates going out under bridges and in encampments to people living on the streets.”
Omilami said the organization just wanted to “give a little bit of help.”
“That food is made better by the smile that comes with it. So if you suffer from chronic homelessness it only takes about a month until you feel like no one cares,” Omilami added.
For those interested in donating or helping the organization, there’s still time.
Click here to learn more.
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