12 Days of Joy from Family to Family
Holiday Drive 2025
Sponsor a family or senior this holiday season by building a gift kit over the first 12 days of December. Each day that you add a new item, your family can discuss and learn more about food insecurity and how it may affect your neighbors. Follow us on social media or in your in-box to get information and reminders – or check back here!
We are very excited to announce our the return of one of our most popular programs: our Family-to-Family Holiday Drive!
We again invite you to create a holiday gift bag of 12 different items for either a local family and/or a senior who may be struggling this year. Past donors have said:
- “Our family is excited to help out this year and we hope our participation will become a new holiday tradition.”
- “This is a great way for people to contribute. Thank you for letting us help.”
- “Thank you for the opportunity to share my good fortune.”
- “Love this project – looking forward to it!”
- “Thank you! This is the most meaningful activity my family does during the holidays!”
You will be provided with a list of suggested items to fill the gift bag. We will send reminders and other information on each day from the 1st through 12th of December. Reminders will show up in your email inbox and will be posted here and on social media. Please make sure all gift items remain without gift wrap; this will allow us to more easily give the bag to an appropriate individual or family.
Gift bags will be collected:
- Friday, December 12 from 4-6pm at Crosby’s Market (211 Sudbury Road, Concord)
- Saturday, December 13 from 10am-1pm at Open Table (33 Main Street, Maynard)
Clients will receive gift bags with their final food distribution of 2025.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to make the holidays more meaningful not only for the families who rely on Open Table, but for your family, too!
If you have any questions about this program, please contact the coordinator, Julie, at holiday@opentable.org
Family-to-Family 2025 Registration
FAQs
If you are new to our Family-to-Family program, you may have some questions about how it works. Below are answers to some of the most common ones. If you still have questions, please contact us at holiday@opentable.org
The way to differentiate between making a Senior bag versus a Family bag would be to consider a Senior bag for 2 people and a Family bag for 3-6 people, including kids. You can think about the size/amount of a food item – smaller for seniors, bigger for family. A board game or craft kit for a Family bag and puzzle book, card game for a Senior bag are appreciated for the “Fun Activity” gift.
We do not match donors with specific families, but we do give bags appropriately to the recipients on our distribution days.
Open Table provides a gift suggestion for each of the first 12 days of December. You create a bag by purchasing each of the 12 gifts on the list.
We request that you do not wrap the gifts. This makes it easier for distribution, so we can make sure our guests get bags appropriate for them.
We wish we could say yes to home baked goodies, but we are not permitted to give those to our clients due to food safety requirements that we follow.
Sure! If you would like to make a Gluten Free bag, we will make sure it gets to an appropriate recipient. Please clearly label the bag with a tag stating Gluten Free.
Yes, indeed! The list is provided above on this page and a less-colorful version is available for printing HERE. The suggested shopping list is also included in your Welcome email when you register to provide a gift bag.
Our past donors report that the average bag costs around $100.
Most of our clients live near a Market Basket, Stop and Shop, CVS, or Walgreens, so these are great gift cards to include. Please place the gift card in an envelope and fasten it to the bag.
Absolutely! Please bring your bag to 33 Main Street in Maynard between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm any Monday to Thursday.
No worries! Please bring your bag to 33 Main Street in Maynard between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm Monday to Thursday. Bags will be distributed by Thursday December 18th.
