Hundreds of local families will have a brighter Christmas this year thanks to the Thomas Promise Foundation.
A packed St. Joseph’s Parish Hall saw the community come together to help local families with a free dinner and presents from Santa for the children.
The Thomas Promise Foundation, in its 12th year serving the children of Zephyrhills, has been providing meals to help fight food insecurity. The Thomas Promise backpack program supplies thousands of children throughout Pasco County with nutritional needs weekly and recently eclipsed celebrated the donation of 4 million meals.
The Christmas program that provides presents for the less fortunate children of Zephyrhills reached an all time high this year serving the most children and families since its inception.
“It’s grateful to see how many people we can help,” said Brooke Thomas, whose awareness of food insecurity at her school at a young age inspired the foundation. “I cannot believe how many people are here tonight. It shows how many people are in need.”
To help those people, Brooke, her parents Dianna and Wade Thomas, along with volunteers and community organizations, provided hundreds of presents and other items for local children.
“We never imagined any of this when we started 12 years ago,” Brooke Thomas said. “We are at capacity in the building and people are lined up around the stage.”
The key to any organization’s success is its volunteers and the Thomas Promise Foundation relies heavily on those willing to give their time to help provide for local children.
“Without them we would not be anything. We are so grateful for them,” Brooke added. “It is such a great feeling doing this and it’s such a blessing to do this for these kids and families.”
According to Wade Thomas, donations from the local community have been critical to the Thomas Promise’s success for more than a decade.
“We couldn’t do any of this without the community,” Wade said. “They have been wonderful. They have stood behind us for 12 years now. They recognize the need and they have helped us along the way. It has been great.”