Church Market Offers Gift Choices With Poor in Mind

People at an outdoor church market on Sunday shopped busily for Christmas gifts--such as cows, bricks and toilets.

Some bought shelter for a homeless family and bus fare for an unemployed father to interview for a job.

These unusual gifts were offered at the Garden Grove United Methodist Church’s Alternative Christmas Giving Market. Holiday shoppers had the chance to buy specific items for the poor and to make the donations in the name of someone as a Christmas gift.

“This is the sixth year our church has done this,” said Hannah Lafler, who is in charge of the alternative-giving program. “Last year we raised $9,500 for the various groups.”

She and other volunteers at the church at 12741 Main St. said many people like the idea of giving things to the poor in the name of someone being remembered at Christmas. The church workers said the gifts go to the poor in Orange County and to poverty-stricken countries around the globe.

Items for the poor in Orange County included donations to the YWCA Hotel for Women. A $15 donation would buy one night of shelter for a homeless woman. A shopper could buy 10 bricks for $10, and those bricks would be used by Habitat for Humanity in constructing housing for Orange County homeless. A $50 donation would buy and install a toilet in such housing.

For poor people in Haiti, Ecuador, Ghana and other Third World nations, shoppers could buy livestock from Heifer Project International, a non-sectarian charity based in Little Rock, Ark. For a $1 donation, for instance, a person could buy a live chicken that would be sent to a poor family in a Third World country.

“The poor families can use the chickens to produce eggs,” said Tom Quental, a church volunteer at the Heifer Project International booth. “They can use the eggs for food, and they can barter the eggs for other things they need.”

Some of the gifts come with cards for the person in whose name the gift was purchased.

Quental’s booth proved to be popular with children. Several live animals surrounded the booth: a baby pig, a rabbit, a calf and some chickens.

“Kids like to come see these animals,” said Quental, whose own three small children were in the crowd of sightseers.

Lafler, the head of the program, said the outdoor booths were a one-day event. But alternative-giving donations will be taken every Sunday between now and Christmas after each service at the church. Anyone wanting more information may call her at home in Anaheim at (714) 991-5558.