you're watching belmont's season of giving exclusively on the b m c and also streaming on belmont media dot org coming up next a long time a b m c member john verily in fact he and i took the production class together many am going to hear a little bit of them right now so ladies and gentlemen we bring you the waverly here on the belmont season of giving great so we're going to do a couple of holiday songs next blue christmas by mr  hi everybody thanks for watching belmont season of giving my name's roger colton and i write the community conversations column for the belmont citizen herald in produce the community conversation pod cast i media center during the season of giving i would like to remind you of an important belmont institutions the belmont affordable shelter fund the belmont affordable shelter fund provides assistance to low income folks who are facing problems that would jeopardize the ability their ability to stay in their homes you can make a contribution to the affordable stelter fund by writing a check to be a s f and mailing it to thirty four more brick broke happy holidays everybody have a good day thank you am bob mahoney president of belmont savings bank wishing you all a happy healthy and safe holiday you know we have wonderful holidays this time of year religious holidays and public holidays and it's a great time to get together with family and friends and and celebrate relationships but you know i feel like me there's a neighbor in your neighborhood on your street if you don't know there's a house if you've walked by a hundred times you never met the people inside wouldn't this be a wonderful time of  time of the year so think about reaching out to a neighborhood that you don't know and and giving them that act the kindness that lets them know that you're caring about them another group of people that we care about a lot of this time of the year the folks who benefit from the belmont food ba and for two hundred families think advantage of this very important service during this time of year and really recommend your generosity the belmont you pull back another way to reach out to the neighbors and make them feel included this important holiday hi everyone my name is carolyn montel to zero and i'm the executive director of the community day center of wealth them yes i am here today to interrupt your festivities by talking about homelessness you may not know this but in waltham alone there are an estimated two hundred and fifty people experiencing homelessness at the day center on felton street we serve about forty men and women each and every day helping them to find the resources that will enable them to have a better life the community day center of waltham is totally donor and sponsors supported we have a very small staff and close to twenty volunteers who tirelessly cook and serve meals oversee our night time warming station and hand out warm socks and blankets we have brandeis and bentley university students who run clothing and food drives neighbors who stop in with home baked cookies and restaurants that deliver nutritious meals we are in every sense of the word a community taking care of those people who for this point in their lives cannot take care of themselves at the community day center we not only provide food and shelter but we give our guests hope and the courage to take the next step in november we were able to help ten people struggling with the issues of homelessness to move on to a better more productive life we stay in touch with them all providing support services so that should they stumble and fall we are there to help them back up the community day center of waltham is one hundred percent donor and sponsor supported we run our place under shoestring and the money you give us goes to the direct care of our guests we hope that in this season of giving you think about your neighbors who are struggling to keep warm struggling to survive and that you will help us to hi i'm state representative dave rogers and i'm wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season it's a great time of year to reflect on all of our blessings and look forward with anticipation to the new year if it's within your family's means to do so i'd encourage you to support those who are in need this holiday season there are so many wonderful charities local charities and groups that advocate for important causes that you can support this holiday season some of my favorite local causes and charities are the belmont foundation for education the belmont citizens form of course the belmont food pantry so whatever your favorite cause please hi my name is alan gettleman i'm executive director of dominant world film and i'm here to remind you about our fourteenth annual family festival which runs january thirteenth through sixteenth at the a b c s of greater boston arlington batman and cambridge we're looking forward to seeing you during the season we'd also like to remind you to give generously to your favorite charity i personally am a big fan of giving to food banks and food pantries because that's where children need the most attention without food they can't learn so please give generously in the meantime have a wonderful highly holiday season and we're looking forward to seeing you in two thousand and seventeen no say ok whoa whoa whoa oh no no no seasons greetings everyone i'm joanna dubois senior multimedia journalist of the belmont citizen herald and wicked local belmont gifts of hope is a campaign the newspaper has been having every year during the holidays for more than a decade the beneficiary is the belmont food pantry i've been managing the campaign since joining the belmont citizen herald in two thousand and ten and every year it has grown bigger and better with more and more businesses participating  savings bank baking company and wescott mercantile i also want to thank this year's major donors and man terra firma caldwell banker bells and whistles the businesses have contributed more than one thousand dollars to the campaign so far this year and viewers can help by sending their donation to the belmont food pantry p o box two nine one belmont  than two hundred clients are served by the belmont food pantry every dollar helps keep the pantry shelves stocked throughout the year thank you in advance for your donation and happy holidays we holiday lights can be recycled at home depot and lowe's during the month of december don't forget to use reusable bags when going shopping for gifts one person using the usable bags over their lifetime would lose more than twenty plastic bags from the invite plan out menus to reduce food waste approximately forty percent of the food in the u s goes to grace if you have a lot of leftovers send gas home w also residents may drop off hot holiday cardboard at the town yard on january seventh and february fourth from nine till new cardboard needs to be flattened but doesn't need to be c i am bob mahoney president obama savings bank wishing well a happy holiday season this is an important season for family and friends to get together and enjoy each other's company and enjoy the spirit of this time of the year but it's also important time for our local retailers we have a a ray of local stores family owned businesses individually owned businesses that are part of big chains could really live and die based on their sales during this christmas time so i hope you think about those folks when you're doing your shopping in and just reach out to them as your first choice is always easy to go to amazon and some of the big online retailers but that does not come back to work and they don't pay taxes or they don't live in our community and support our community  these local stores so i wish that this holiday season you think shop locally and also watch local media center in the greater array of activities for you to take advantage of and i hope you support the love hit it's funny how the times yesterday we were just kids hanging in the in this season of giving pleased as always this time of year to be joined by patty about how much from the belmont food pantry the director of the food pantry and also involved in the toys for tots campaign just a couple of different causes very worthy causes that we're going to be talking  about during this program and let's talk about we'll start off patti always good to see you we're going to talk about the food pantry that at this time last year of the food pantry raised close to seventy thousand dollars in donations a very good year and there's going to lot of changes going on with the food pantry over the last year are and and how that you know the belmont residents can help and support the food pantry monetary and it's always been a great fundraiser for the food pantry the town really really comes forward and helps and supports it so we're always very very appreciative if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be existing so last year yes we raised almost seventy thousand dollars the town donated to different venues people mailed in their donations that people actually we have pay pal on our website you can also donate pay pal but the business came together and had different food pantry nights you know so they might have ten percent of their their take that they took in that of their sales of that day went to the food pantry everybody did it last year and a lot of the businesses actually stepped up and were doing it also again repeating that so it's been it's been a great turnout for that and then you know we had the center tree lighting was another opportunity for people to donate food so it's been a great you know way to fundraise and support the food pantry and you were i think the other changes with the food pantries you guys are working out of a new location and we need to be able to keep up with this for the folks who may want to go to the patriot self and make a donation and that's actually very true that's been definitely what's been happening and so where are you now i thought you were here and now you're not  so in the process of having to move out so that they could prepare the rooms for the classrooms we didn't have a permanent site yet fortunately sammy baghdadi actually got an idea and called paul toshi and he said you know do you have a space he says yeah i've got a garage normally i park the plows in it but right now it's empty and so that's where we were for three months august september and october at ten ten pl worked phenomenally it was a big huge space i put out a call in two weeks that i had for that day of moving which was july twenty ninth probably had fifty people come out it was it was total control chaos and fortunately we moved from a small place to a big place so we could accommodate all of the everyone and then and the end of september you know the end of october we moved to our permanent location right around the corner here at fifty one lexington str mt hope church and we have a basement space that they offer to us and generously it's working out ok so it's fifty one lexington street you can't park out in front of it but there's plenty of parking in different areas  years the first and third saturday we ask volunteers to come at eight o'clock and we open up to the public at eight thirty am open from eight thirty to nine thirty and then the second and fourth tuesday we volunteers arrive at five o'clock in were open for five thirty to six thirty and then the new day that we added thanks to the plymouth congregational church is on the fourth sunday and it's we're open from three to four o'clock so makes it much easier for everybody because we have a lot of people who had believe it or not i had one hundred nine well i actually had to buy almost two hundred gift cards for families for the season well so we have a you know our numbers have increased so it's been you know and of course everybody remembers it's belmont residents only you know and what are some of the items i know we always kind of go through the list but are there any particular items maybe you're looking for more particularly maybe this time a year more than others sir to me and larger again the continuing of the toiletries people don't even realize you know how much i mean when you go to buy paste so much more dollars you know so that adds to you know that helps out if if people are donat toothpaste show the paper all of the toiletry items we have always a need for tuna fish canned food is always a good staple that we like and of course everyone loves the quaker oats hearty meal day exactly exactly a lot of the elderly love to have that great now if people walk can't make it to the food pantry they want to send a donation of course they can they can mail their donation while you mention the pay pal off the website which you just google belmonte food pantry and you'll get to the website but there's also the other post office box to ninety one that people want to mail their payments they could still do with the old school way you have a you have an email address a case people have any questions about the food pier tree is know he's been great i mean talk about some of the other donations and things that have been going on throughout this month plus of you know so again on there and they've been doing participating in the food pantry even for about ten years now they've been  working with the paper so they had their night and which was great and then you champions always again is supporting it we have bells and whistles but bessie blue thirty pedals they had their food pantry day shopping and then  we had to revolve barbers dan khurana my actually even you know westcott mercantile salon salon for five five the spirit of gourmet barrow and bateson and saline salon and day spa and seeis clothing so there's been a lot of people participating and it's you know just great that you know everybody in the belmont residents support that the businesses because there's been such a hard few years director of that organization but talk a little bit about toys for tots which you've been involved in this year well it's more so of just letting everybody know that believe it or not they've been doing the toys for tots program had the police department been running for many many years and they drop off has been at is at the police department and it wasn't until a few years ago that i was informed and found out that all of the toys there don't need to develop a police department are distributed to the belmont residents the bell my children here in belmont so it stays within the community so i you know we start like it is under the auspices of the toys for tots berean program but  what comes into belmont you know stays in belmont comes from belmont says in belmont so it's a wonderful program and it really helps the families who are in need because we do have a lot of you know families who do need the extra help so this is a great program and even if you have it you've missed the deadline they still accept toys and then what you can do is just put it on your calendar for next year to remember to to bring it to the police just station for the children  another actually program that's happening is the fitness together belmont which is located around thirty church to he is there offering their places for the entire month of december and you can drop off the food there so that was nice of them to participate and open up their doors for people to come in and drop off food for the food pantry in the course is way across the street so they can just bring it over to us a new company or organization that's stepped up to the plate for the food drive that that was the extent of my friends that was mine from going to their web site you know so that that worked out so that's been you know a great addition to it you know and we've had ongoing you know it's kaymer savings bank has always been hope as you're watching some of the the entertainers over the next couple of hours that you maybe take a moment and you know get on your laptop or whatever electronic device you have and go to go to belmont media dot org where i think there's links to up to the gifts of  happy holidays i'm just an uighur with the belmont festival orchestra in the spirit of the season i would love to encourage you to donate to the charity or cause of your choice thank you so much and happy holidays do hi this is police chief principal blossom from the belmont police firemen i just want to remind people at this point in time we are involved with the marine corps toys for tots program we are asking people if you could during the season bring and unwrapped no toys to the police station twenty four seven where accepting the toys up until december fifteenth but if you do come after that we will still but when like to try and get the toys there so that we can deliver them by christmas and these are for the belmont children thank you have a great day and merry christmas happy holidays on your cable bill these are just three of the hundreds of services and programs offered at the public library i marry carter belmont public libraries community services i see all your spending time with friends and loved ones this holiday season why not participate in one of the public libraries current programs belmont great holiday list a part of the belmont story project the great holiday lists and focuses on are you playing an active part in our communit two eight seven zero or visit our website at belmont public library dot net please join the public library for the great holiday listen or stop by the library this month to see what's new and happy holidays from the