beyond all the hustle and bustle the holidays are a chance to bring out the best in all of us tonight we're learning about a food giveaway in Camden that's spreading some holiday cheer to families in need this morning volunteers distributed 29,000 pounds of food at the Arab American Community Church joined by city leaders who helped hand out the groceries to anyone and everyone who braved the cold so they could serve a warm meal this week Raven Santana spoke with several of the volunteers about why this event is so critical at this time of year Merry Christmas to me I'm going get some goodies I'm a freeze to get this Camden resident Odessa mcneel was one of more than 300 Camden residents who Brave the cold with smiles and excitement for the second annual holiday food giveaway about people giving back people giving back and people sharing showing to love to each other that that means more than anything especially in C cuz it's kind of rough here residents could be seen with multiple bags shopping carts and some even had their parked cars waiting for them as they waited their turn in a line that nearly wrapped around the corner at the intersection of Third Street and State Street last year I know it was it was hundreds and hundreds of people last year this is going to go until 1:00 uh I know family's going to maybe I told them you can get as much as you want go home come back make sure you call your Aunts Uncles Grandma brothers sisters to come on out here today I expect all it is to be G and when all that's going that makes me warns my heart this time of the year a lot of people spend ton of money on gifts and then they forgot about the food and fresh food is a big factor and we need to bring it to in our diet just a joy and to see people come and take benefits and carry their bags and fill it up and go the event was sponsored by Jack auu business owner and member of the Arab Community Church thanks to blessing of Hope organization which is we uh uh in partnership with them as far as as far as the city of Camden volunteers Public Works the mayor office and Etc we managed to bring 29,000 lb of food of fresh food from uh strawberries to bread to Gade to bananas to pineapples all multiple fresh vegetables and food and caned food and some meat and some greens which is great for the holidays and for the people dozens of volunteers including councilwoman Janette Ramos could be seen handing out food and encouraging residents to tell their neighbors to come back for more I'm a uh uh sibling of seven I grew up in North Camden my mom used to get a lot of things from churches and organization so I know what it's like to be without and these are these are things that are though times uh have passed and I'm older and I'm in a different position you still have those families that are in need so it's important to be able to get and and let them know that during your hardest times there are entities again that do help you just have to not feel embarrassed to get the help so what is the goal today the goal is to make sure that every family in this area in this catchman or even throughout Camden get something some food on their plate for the holiday season Camden County Commissioner Al Dyer pointed out that the fourth ward is considered a food desert and says the annual food drive is a major buffer for residents especially during the holiday we don't have no large food chain of res of um grocery stores here so right now it looked like we're in the uh the the food section at Wegman somewhere because there's so much stuff for people to get and there's so many items and the stuff is fresh so the food is fresh so this is a good thing I'm glad we have a lot of people in the line is continuous and they I see people circling and coming back so this is a good thing Dyer says the goal is to spread holiday cheer to anyone and everyone it's a holiday season and you know we want to make sure people have a stress fre holiday and you can come out here and get as much food as you want call people tell them to come out here bring other families out here but we just want to give back and make sure that um that everybody can enjoy the holidays and have something on their plat for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana