Toys, joy, and much more were provided through Golden Harvest Food Bank teaming with Fort Gordon Christmas House (FGCH). The partnership allowed qualified active-duty service members an opportunity to pick out gifts for their children as well as food. Two hundred families were served at the event.

Founded in the 1960s, Fort Gordon Christmas House set out on a mission to bring joy and new toys to military families. The organization was created by a group of nurses who worked at Fort Gordon. The nurses decided to offer teddy bears as Christmas gifts to children of deployed military personnel. Over the years, FGCH has expanded to provide military families with five stocking stuffers, one high value and one lesser value gift per child, one book per child, one board game per family, and a large box of food from Golden Harvest Food Bank.

“The Fort Gordon Christmas House is a magical place. It’s proof that a need was identified, and folks jumped in and took action. To see the faces of the service members while ‘shopping’ for their children, puts everything into perspective and you can actually feel the love in the air,” said Naomi “Nomi” Stanton, wife of Fort Gordon’s Deputy Commanding General.

The inside of the Christmas house is adorned with Christmas trees, toy soldiers, and other holiday decorations. The “shopping area” for service members is set up in a retail fashion, with shopping carts and shelves full of toys and books.

In addition to the gifts provided by FGCH, pre-registered military families received a Golden Harvest food box which consisted of soup, rice, fruits, vegetables at other pantry stable items. Each family also received a turkey. The Food Bank distributed over 7,000 pounds of food for the event.

“We are proud to partner with Fort Gordon Christmas House this year. It is extremely important to us that we support our military families and ensure they have all the makings of a wonderful Christmas; because these heroes should never go without,” said Amy Breitmann, President and CEO of Golden Harvest.

According to Feeding America projections, as many as 160,000 active-duty enlisted service members face food insecurity. In a recent of Feeding America’s food banks’ survey, approximately half serve active-duty military members and their families.