MIDDLEBORO — The 2024 Giving Tree Program from the Sacred Heart Food Pantry was a huge success, providing nearly 5,000 gifts to children in need in Middleboro and several dozen patients in local nursing homes who otherwise would have received no gifts this Christmas.

“We are truly blessed to have a community that steps up each and every year to donate to this amazing program,” said co-chairs Arlyn White and Marsha Trackey. 

For several years, one of the major donors to the Giving Tree has been the Good Neighbors of Plymouth County, founded by local businessman Craig Andersen and his partner, Phyllis Gordon Lovett. 

Each year, Andersen and his staff and friends hold a toy drive party at the Elks club where party-goers are required to bring toys for the Giving Tree as part of their entrance fee. 

This year’s Toy Drive Party held on Nov. 16 brought in $4,890 in cash from donations and raffles and donated toys with an estimated value at more than $6,000. 

The Bluestone Charitable Foundation recently provided the Sacred Heart Food Pantry with a grant that was greatly appreciated by the staff of the pantry.

Bluestone’s donation letter read in part: “ We would like to thank you for your continued dedication to combatting food insecurity in our community; to show our appreciation, and to uphold our commitment to those struggling to put food on the table, we would like to provide St. Vincent de Paul, Middleboro Food Pantry with a $2,700 grant.” 

The Sacred Heart Food Pantry has also been selected to participate in the Be Well Study, a two-year research project, being conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital in conjunction with the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Members of the Be Well research team will be at the pantry in the next two weeks seeking to survey up to 25 of pantry clients as part of the study. Client participation is voluntary and anonymous. Participants will be asked to fill out a brief survey of the choices that they selected while shopping at Sacred Heart Food Pantry.