Families Receive Donated Food Baskets for Thanksgiving

More than 100 volunteers helped fill and deliver baskets to 330 Mountain View families during the 16th annual Cops and Gobblers food drive Sunday.

Organized by the Mountain View Police Officers' Association the drive brought together a large cross-section of the city—from toddlers accompanying their parents for the first time to long-time residents veterans of past drives—all with the desire to make life easier for needy families. Spotted in the crowd were also off-duty police officers and school officials from both the elementary and high school districts.

And after the volunteers assembled the baskets at police headquarters, they got lists of families to drop them off to. The families were identified by the schools.

"This is a real positive event," said Bruce Barsi, a former police captain in Mountain View and drive coordinator told the volunteers outside of 1000 Villa St. "Most families don't know that they are receiving [a basket]."

That was definitely the case for one mom of an Alta Vista High schooler. Unable to afford her rent, she had moved into the living room of a friend with her children. The modeslty dressed woman beamed when she saw the white basket filled with canned and boxed goods. Her smile and gratefulness increased when she learned about the $9 gift card to help toward the purchase of a 15 pound turkey at Safeway.

"¡Muchas gracias!," she said. "Thank you!"

Enjoy these photos of the event and check out this list of other volunteer opportunities this week.

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