One of the most rewarding aspects of the holiday season is the coming together of different parts of the community. MVES and companies from the Chelsea Produce Market recently worked together to make holiday fruit baskets for elderly clients.

“The produce vendors have been generous to MVES and the holiday basket program for 15 years,” said Donna Jones, an intake case manager at MVES who heads up the program with Denise McHale, also a case manager. “The baskets always contain the freshest fruit.”

MVES employees wake early on the day of the basket assembly and pick up boxes of fruit in Chelsea. Arriving back at the agency in Malden, the fruit is unloaded to a waiting group of volunteers who, while waiting, had picked up additional donated fruit donated by nearby grocery store Rosebud. This year nearly the entire staff lined up to arrange the fruit in holiday baskets complete with gift wrap and ribbons. And, this season the baskets also included a special treat of home-baked cookies, courtesy of the students of the Wakefield Public Schools and the staff of The Savings Bank in Wakefield. Local commercial property owner Combined Properties contributed money to purchase the actual baskets and gift wrap.

A flurry of activity lasted for several hours until over 250 baskets had been arranged and wrapped. After a quick stop for a photograph, staff gathered the baskets and delivered them to clients throughout MVES’ eight-community service area.

“Everyone likes something special, particularly around the holidays,” said McHale. “Aside from being nutritious, the fruit baskets reassure elders that people are thinking of them.”

Baskets are reserved primarily for those elders who don’t have family with whom to share the holiday spirit. For these individuals, the baskets mean a lot more than just fresh fruit. They show that community members care about their happiness during the holiday season.

MVES staff and the Holiday Baskets