Holiday Giving Meal program to feed 425 Broome County families in 2026
With the holiday season fast approaching, local leaders and organizations are mobilizing to ensure everyone, even the less fortunate, has a beautiful holiday meal to serve on some of the most special days of the year. On Nov. 12, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County, CHOW, Broome-Tioga BOCES School Nutrition Services, The Leadership Alliance, and Broome County announced the start of the seventh year of Holiday Giving Meals. The initiative will push fundraising efforts with the intent of providing a whopping 425 meals for Southern Tier families. The meals will be given to families in need, with local schools referring families, and 30 meals given to local veterans through the Broome County Veteran Resiliency Program. Holiday Giving Meal initiative returns for seventh year Formerly known as the Holiday Giving Box program, the initiative was started in 2020 to help families struggling with food insecurity and to support local farmers struggling to sell their goods due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally aiming to provide 50 meals, the program's size has grown exponentially, meaning more families in need are fed each year. Families in need are identified in a variety of ways, including through school counselors
