QUINCY — The basement at Interfaith Social Services brimmed with colorful Easter grass, yards and yards of ribbon and boxes of candy and toys as volunteers in bunny ears assembled Easter baskets for children in need on Saturday.
“With this you just want to put a smile on a wee child’s face,” said Angela Ryan of Quincy, who’s volunteered at the non-profit since last June. ““No wee child should go without an Easter basket.”
The Quincy non-profit has been in operation since the 1940s, offering anti-homelessness services like a food pantry, counseling, community gardening, help with paying for rent and utilities and free business attire for job interviews. Thousands of people from across the South Shore access their programs each month, including around 800 children each month through the food pantry alone.
Rick Doane, executive director of Interfaith Social Services, said for at least 15 years they’ve made Easter baskets to give to families with children 12 and younger who come to the food pantry during the month before Easter. This year, they made around 400, with the help of 30 volunteers.
Upstairs at the non-profit’s Adam Street center, volunteers filled thousands of plastic eggs with candy. Downstairs, volunteers worked in an assembly line to add Easter grass, then the plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies and toys like bubbles, crayons and chalk to each basket before bundling each one in clear plastic. Rows of already assembled baskets lined one wall of the the basement’s main room.
Paula Daniels, Interfaith’s director of development, said the Easter basket project started as a way to address children’s need beyond giving them food from the pantry. They run similar programs at other times of the year— in August, they give out backpacks full of school supplies, and in December, donors help out parents with holiday shopping by being paired with individual children and buying specific gifts with each child in mind.
Ryan worked with a few other women to put the finishing touch on the baskets, tying three different colors of ribbon around each one and carefully curling the ribbon with scissors.
“If we can help, then we do. And we can,” she said.
Doane said the organization’s focus has always been on helping families and children, and the Easter baskets ties right into that mission.
To learn more about Interfaith Social Services, go to interfaithsocialservices.org.
“The reason we do this is to bring joy to children,” he said.
