GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Toys for Tots has made its mark on Kent County by delivering toys to thousands of children in need every year.
"We serviced over 13,000 kids in Kent County last year," Toys for Tots' Kent County Coordinator Jeff DeJonge said.
But in the last few years, DeJonge explained how it's been challenging for the organization to keep up with demand as some of its resources have dried up.
"We still distributed toys during COVID," DeJonge said. "We did have to reach into our reserves quite a bit during that, so the donations were down, the cash donations were down, the businesses weren't open, and weren't able to donate money."
As a result, Kent County's program announced this year that it will reduce the age range of the children they serve from its usual maximum of 16 years old down to 13 years old.
DeJonge cited the shortages as the reason behind the new rules.
"We are community-run," DeJonge said. "We can only give out what the community gives us, and we aren't getting enough toys or enough money in to support the older ages."
But with further help from the community, he said they could look to return to serving as many children as possible and making kids' Christmas a little bit brighter.
"We want to help everybody, but we can only help with what the community gives us and if the community increases the donations, hopefully, we can go back to where we were," DeJonge said. "But as of right now, we had to cut it because we need to be able to stay around for the future generations."
Anyone looking to help donate and drop off toys this year to the organization can do so, DeJonge said, before Dec. 11. You can find a list of drop off locations across Kent County and West Michigan here.
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