Give Christmas gifts to families in need through His Toy Store
His Toy Store, Hope for New York’s Christmas outreach for families in need across our city, will begin this November!
For the entire month of November, Hope for New York will be accepting online donations for Christmas toys for families in need all over our city.
This year, we’re working with our affiliate partners to host nine His Toy Stores in strategic neighborhoods across the city in December. At these stores parents can shop for toys at no cost and are also able to connect to local ministries.
These parents include the working poor in low-income neighborhoods, formerly incarcerated individuals reconnecting with their families, and moms and dads in residential recovery programs. For many of them, His Toy Store is the only opportunity they have to provide gifts for their children.
Through His Toy Store, we’ve met parents like LaToya, who has been involved with A House on Beekman’s “Mommy & Me” program in the Bronx. LaToya was able to choose toys for her three children.
“When their dad lost his job, I thought, ‘How am I going to do everything? Here comes rent, but what are we going to do for toys?’” she said. “It took a weight off.”
However, we don’t see this outreach as just a one-time giveaway — our hope is that parents connect with a caring community in their neighborhood for year-round support and spiritual community. Pastor Anna Mandile, one of our partners at Living Waters Fellowship in Brooklyn, told us that His Toy Store is an indispensible resource for being able to love and serve families in the neighborhood.
“Many of the families [we see] have trouble paying their bills,” she says. “They often are living with more than one family in an apartment to make ends meet, and they struggle to give us the $20 fee per week for our afterschool program.”
His Toy Store allows families to “see love without the “strings” attached. They know that they are loved and cared for.
How to Give:
Our goal is to raise enough to stock our stores for 850 families: that’s around 2,600 toys. This year, giving to His Toy Store is completely online! Simply go to hfny.org/HTS to make your gift by November 30.
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