MONROE — The Monroe Woman’s Club has updated its food boxes — part of the Monroe Christmas Stocking Fund — to better serve the community this holiday season. 

“In response to our ever-changing world, the Monroe Christmas Stocking made significant changes the past few years,” said Cindy Ditter, a publicity coordinator for the club. “We will continue to maximize the generous monetary donations from our community and serve as many families as possible.”

The contents of this year’s food boxes have been updated to reflect the two-week period children will be home for Christmas break, when they could possibly be without food

“We also revamped it so that they will be able to have a Christmas meal, which was the goal in the past — they’ll be able to still have that,” said Mary Schmidt, a food box coordinator.

During the pandemic, the program began using meat coupons that recipients could take to grocery stores to purchase their own meat products. The Monroe Woman’s Club is also working with Kwik Trip this year for providing perishable items. Food boxes will continue to be picked up, rather than delivered. Schmidt said this will allow the program to run more efficiently. 

Community support is always appreciated in the form of monetary donations. 

“Monetary donations are the best way to offset the price of the food boxes because the prices for food boxes, like every grocery item, have gone up,” said Schmidt. 

Donations can be sent to the Christmas Stocking Fund, which supports the entire process from the food boxes to toys and winter clothing for the children. 

“It is with grateful hearts that we thank everyone for their continued support of this worthwhile project,” said Ditter. 

Community members interested in helping the program can also donate via the Monroe Woman’s Club Facebook page, called GFWC Monroe Woman’s Club.