The 2021 Food Basket Program was the most successful year round community outreach program in the history of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church.  The program started many years ago with only a few families receiving help, to a program that reached 205 families with 484 children this calendar year.  We have gone from a food basket once a year to delivering food four times a year.

Easter, providing a generous holiday meal; Summer, considering that children are home from school and not participating in the breakfast and lunch programs offered during the school year; Thanksgiving, food for the family to share at their holiday table; Christmas, where families receive non-perishables to last about two weeks, plus fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.  Each child in the familiy also receives four wrapped gifts of clothes.  A certificate for a new pair of shoes, provided by Village Outreach Shoe Fund, is also included in the Christmas delivery.  The non-perishables are purchased through the Hot Springs Food Bank, Project Hope, which gives Sacred Heart much more buying power.

It is estimated that the Food Basket Program donated almost $20,000 in food and $8,000 in Christmas presents.  There was also $1,054 donated to the Village Outreach Shoe Fund.  The total expense for the shoes for all the children, including those supported by other churches in the Village, comes to over $4,000.  Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the support of the Knights of Columbus, Sacred Heart Men's Club and Ladies of Sacred Heart is the largest sponsor of the Food Basket Program in Hot Springs Village.

The Food Basket Program's only fundraiser is a special collection taken on the last week-end in October that coincides with Halloween.  The generosity of this parish allows us to reach out to the wider community in this basic way.  "I was hungry and you gave me food."