Adopt-a-Family Program
Adoptee signups close on November 5th.
Donors still needed!
To request to be placed on a waitlist as an Adoptee Family,
email SocialServices@jonnycake.org or call (401) 377-8069 and select Option 1.
To sign up as a Donor who can help provide gift cards or financial assistance,
email Holiday@jonnycake.org or call (401) 377-8069 ext. 106.
This annual program provides residents with financial assistance to purchase holiday meals and gifts for children.
To request to join the waitlist as an Adoptee individual or family who can benefit from financial assistance for holiday meals and presents, contact Jonnycake Social Services.
- Email SocialServices@jonnycake.org, or
- Call (401) 377-8069 and select Option 1, or
- Visit the Social Services office during its operating hours.
- Distribution took place Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14 in our rear parking lot.
To register as a Donor who can provide gift cards or financial assistance for neighbors, contact Lee Eastbourne, Executive Director.
- Email Holiday@jonnycake.org, or
- Call (401) 377-8069 x106, or
- Visit the Thrift Store during its operating hours.
- We are incredibly grateful for any interest in donating physical toys, presents, and food for the Adopt-a-Family program… but we ask that for 2021, all donations are financial or gift cards only.
- Donations of toys and presents are still welcome and are needed for the Thrift Store. Learn how to donate here.
- Food donations are welcomed by the Food Pantry on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 12pm to 3pm at the Pantry’s rear loading dock.
The Adopt-a-Family program has helped bring holiday magic to thousands of local children and people since its inception.
Before the pandemic, volunteer groups from throughout the southern Rhode Island region would visit the Jonnycake Center of Westerly to sort and distribute a multitude of toys and gifts that concerned citizens from the community had donated for the program. The Center’s Food Pantry would distribute meals and supplies so that no neighbor would have to go without a traditional holiday dinner.
In 2020, faced with the challenge of continuing to serve the community while protecting public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center reinvented its Adopt-a-Family program.
Instead of inviting large groups of volunteers to the Center in order to accept, quarantine, sort, and distribute physical presents for every registered family, the Center provided financial assistance for each family in an equivalent amount of what the gifts would have cost. Each adoptee family received a supply of gift cards to local retailers so that parents could make their own unique and personal choices for their children’s gifts, as well as reduce the likelihood of community-based COVID-19 transmission.
The Food Pantry also offered gift cards to Westerly-area grocers so that Adoptees could select their own ingredients for their holiday meals.
As a result of the retooled program, families of 498 local children gained access to financial assistance for gifts, and 1,214 neighbors from 447 households received assistance to purchase holiday meals in 2020. Based on the success of the restructured program, the same model will be used for 2021.
