The tears are what Marina Cruz talks about first when she describes the toy distribution effort that took place last year.
She watched those tears come from children in her Maryland apartment complex and church as they clutched stuffed animals they didn’t expect to receive, and she heard those tears over the phone come from children in another country who were surprised to get presents from so far away.
During this time last year, so many people in the Washington region donated secondhand toys to a volunteer collective that serves migrant families that Cruz and other community leaders were able to provide gently used gifts to thousands of children throughout the area and to send some to Africa and Central America. Cruz, who serves as a pastor in Prince George’s County, collected items for dozens of families in her building and church. She then sent a box of toys to Guatemala, where her oldest daughter and grandchildren lived.
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“It’s a very poor area, where kids are usually barefoot and have access to very little services of any kind,” Cruz said in Spanish. “They called when they got the box, and they were crying and saying, ‘Thank you!’ They were so happy.”
What happened last year with the gift-collecting effort “Santa con Sabor” was not a Christmas miracle, but it felt that way to many of the people involved. After the volunteer collective Food Justice DMV put out an SOS, letting supporters know that it hadn’t collected enough food or toys to give to the migrant families in the Washington region, people in D.C., Maryland and Virginia dug through their garages, basements and toy bins for items their children and grandchildren no longer used or wanted.
They then started dropping off puzzles, art kits and more at several collection sites in the region — and they kept coming. At one church, used toys filled four rooms. At another church, they wrapped around the building.
“A tsunami of gorgeous gently loved gifts” is how Denise Woods described the scene at the time.
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“A trickle” is how she might describe it this year.
Woods founded Food Justice DMV during the pandemic to make sure migrant families wouldn’t go hungry at a time when many were being pushed out of the workforce and left without federal assistance. This year, she said, she has seen the needs of the community grow and donations fall short of meeting them.
In recent weeks, she has grown particularly worried about the toy distribution effort the group started several years ago. She shared with me text messages she has been receiving from community leaders. One features a photo of a cardboard box placed in front of a Silver Spring church to receive donations. Only a few toys sit in it. Another photo shows a table placed outside a restaurant for the public to leave items. It’s bare.
“I know this year there are a lot more children but I have faith that there will be more donations,” reads a text in Spanish that one volunteer sent Woods a few days ago.
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Repurposing used toys is not a new concept. What makes the group’s effort unique is that volunteers do that on a large scale and serve families across the region who are often hesitant to seek out help from government agencies or more well-known toy distribution efforts. With Food Justice DMV, families don’t have to worry about filling out paperwork in a language they don’t know or being asked for documents they don’t have.
Woods said community leaders regularly distribute food to about 1,100 families in the region, but so far, they have not collected enough toys to provide for all the children in those families. As of Wednesday, they only had enough to support between 50 and 100 families. When we spoke, she was desperate to spread the word that the group needed help, again.
“I think all children who celebrate Christmas dream of Santa and receiving gifts,” Woods said. “We want to make Christmas wishes come true for children whose parents just arrived here, or for those who have been here for decades, so they know they are loved. They all may have escaped violence, poverty or extortion to walk here, endured many traumas, and now face many different struggles. But they all deserve a holiday full of peace, magic and joy.”
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Dora Currea, who serves as co-chair of the sanctuary ministry for Washington National Cathedral, which works with many organizations to help local families, described Food Justice DMV as a “critical partner.”
She has seen how the volunteer collective has kept families fed that might otherwise go hungry and developed trust in communities that don’t easily ask for help. Currea described the group’s used-gift-giving effort as striking at a core belief for many people who are religious, no matter their faith — “to love and share with your neighbors.”
The group will continue collecting toys — and “dignity standard” clothes, diapers, formula, sanitary products and cleaning supplies — from now until Dec. 21 at locations throughout the region. In Northwest Washington: Atxondo on 14th Street and the Sunoco gas station on Virginia Avenue. In Virginia: Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ in Arlington, Iglesia Mana del Cielo in Sterling and the BP on Columbia Pike in Annandale. In Maryland: Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, Manantial de Vida Apostolic Church in Silver Spring, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hyattsville, Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Mateo in Bowie, and the Amoco on New Hampshire Avenue in Takoma Park.
Cruz said that of course all children want something “shiny in a brand-new package with bows,” but children also recognize that they can get enjoyment out of secondhand toys, and many look forward to Santa con Sabor. Already, she said, her grandchildren have asked about it.
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Last year, she had to send toys to Guatemala to reach them. This year, she will get to see them open their presents.
In October, the daughter Cruz was forced to leave behind 25 years ago when she came to the United States finally joined the family. Cruz said she and her husband, whose two other children were born in the United States, hadn’t been able to afford the legal fees needed to fight for their oldest daughter to come sooner. Cruz’s daughter instead had to take an expensive and harrowing journey with her two children, ages 3 and 6, across the border.
Through tears, Cruz described the moment she saw her daughter and grandchildren. They had nothing, she said, but their clothes and a few crackers a stranger gave them.
I asked her what she hopes to give her grandchildren this Christmas.
“I want to give them everything,” she said.
But, she said, she will be happy if she can find them used bikes and maybe a game.
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