Manchester, NH- Shire Sharing, a volunteer-run charity organized by New Hampshire liberty activists throughout the state, completed their annual Thanksgiving basket assembly and delivery of meals this weekend. The organization, founded by Amanda Bouldin in 2011, provides Thanksgiving dinners to needy families. Shire Sharing relies entirely on donations and volunteers to locate families in need, gather food, and assemble and deliver the meals.
The organization reached their fundraising goal with enough money to deliver meals to 500 homes, and this year has seen a large expansion in numbers of volunteers as well as areas being served. In Shire Sharing’s first year of operation in 2011, meals were delivered mostly to homes in the Manchester area. The organization has continued to grow over the last few years, and this year families were served in the areas of Manchester, Concord, Nashua, Keene, and Grafton.
Shire Sharing locates families in need by working with various human services organizations. Bouldin learned late last week that one of the organizations would not be providing her with a previously committed list of families in need.
“About 72 hours before we were set to make deliveries, we found out there was a problem with the data for about 300 families on our list and we couldn’t get the information in time,” Bouldin told Benswann.com’s Annabelle Bamforth. “We readjusted our food orders and scrambled to find more families. We located about 100 more in one day. By then, it was far too late to make any changes, so we went with what we had. All in all, we delivered to over 330 households.”
Despite the circumstances, the leftover resources from Shire Sharing will not be going to waste. Bouldin was contacted by Liberty House, a homeless shelter for veterans located in Manchester, and learned that about 300 homeless veterans are in need of Thanksgiving meals. Bouldin plans to use the remainder of the Thanksgiving supplies to provide those veterans with dinner on Thanksgiving Day.