Grandma’s Love Partners with Local Real Estate Agent for Food Drive

Grandma’s Love is helping to make spirits bright for the holidays.

The organization, founded in 2015, is dedicated to distributing food, books and other items to children in area schools, and provides backpacks filled with staples for families that are in need.

To assist the organization, Re/Max Elite hosted a backpacking party on Weds., Nov. 28, during which the entire staff helped fill the backpacks.

“We’ve teamed up with Re/Max Elite and they’ve become one of our actual partners now in schools,” said Theresa Monforte-Caraballo, the organization’s founder. “They’ve done a food fund-drive for us. Today, they are actually going to pack out one of our schools with the week’s menu and some extra goodies that they’ve collected. The backpacks will be delivered tomorrow to P.S. 503, the School of Discovery and Exploration, located at 330 59th Street between Bay Ridge and Sunset Park.” Kids brought the stuffed backpacks home on Fri., Nov. 30.

Grandma’s Love, a weekly food program, will also deliver backpacks to other schools in the area including P.S. 264, P.S. 231 and P.S. 506. “We are also in conversation with P.S. 112 in Dyker Heights,” Monforte-Caraballo said. “And we are also in conversation with P.S. 748 on Benson Avenue. We would love to be able to help families in need in those areas thanks to the generosity of our new partner.”

Monforte-Caraballo, a former teacher, is grateful to everyone in the community for their support. “Without our partners we couldn’t do this,” she said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun and you really are helping a lot of children. And it means a great deal to the families.”

Julie Thum, associate broker at Re/Max Elite, was filling the backpacks with cereal, tuna, rice, beans, vegetables and assorted snacks. “I’m really happy to be involved with Grandma’s Love because it’s a local organization that helps children and our office feels very strongly about supporting such an organization,” she said. “It’s a thrill to do it around the holidays. It’s also good to do it all year around and we hope to be supporting them the entire year.”

Monforte-Caraballo summed up her noble cause by adding, “When you give one, you get 100 back, because when you give of yourself and your time, everything comes back full circle to you.”

To make a donation, visit www.grandmasloveinc.org/donate.