Employees of a local factory are preparing to brighten the holidays once again for some needy families. Tonight Alcoa workers will pack 550 food baskets and they'll be delivered tomorrow.
Company spokesman, John Riches, says their annual Christmas basket campaign began in 1950 when some employees took up a collection to buy food for a co-worker who was having medical problems. Since then it's grown to hundreds of food baskets with the recipients each year nominated by Alcoa employees.
"You might know somebody at church or you live in a small town outside the Quad Cities, and you know a family that's down on their luck so they nominate them for a food basket."
This year plant employees raised 18,000 dollars for these food baskets through a combination of contributions, department fundraisers, and recycling beverage cans. The baskets will be packed tonight, and Riches says, it usually takes just an hour for the more than 500 baskets, but that follows several hours of planning.
Alcoa employees will deliver the baskets to the families they nominated on Friday.
(photo courtesy of Alcoa)