In the past, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Niagara members have adopted families, and donated hand-knitted mittens and scarves during the holiday season. This year, they decided to also donate something a little different, but just as important to those in need — toilet paper.
Rolls of toilet paper, shaped into a tree, were collected from church and community members, and then donated on Wednesday to Heart, Love and Soul, a Niagara Falls-based food pantry and soup kitchen.
Marge Gillies, president of the church, said some newest members of the congregation came up with the idea to collect toilet paper for those in need.
“If a person is on social services, the money that they get for food is only for food,” Gillies said. “So there’s no money or very little left for supplies like toilet paper.”
Sister Beth Brosmer, executive director of Heart, Love and Soul, said she was delighted by the donation and what it will mean for the recipients.
“People feel better when they can retain their dignity and have what they need,” she said. “I think when people can be heard, not only through the ears but by the heart, it makes an enormous difference.”
The toilet paper will be distributed through the group’s “Necessary Store,” where people who use the food pantry can go to select two or three personal items each month.
