Sacramento Friends Meeting Seeks A Partner Meeting

For nearly a decade Sacramento Friends Meeting has been offering Christmas packages to indigent women in two California prisons, Corona and Chowchilla. Because of the large number of requests, Sacramento Friends will only be able to provide packages to women in the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona. We are hoping that another monthly Meeting might be able to serve the women in the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla.

We provide flyers explaining our offer and how to request a package, that are then posted throughout the prison. Prison Chaplains reach out to the most in need to aid them in filling out a request form for items of their choice. Items ordered include make-up, hygiene products, snacks, etc. This year they can order up to $50. We also pay the $9.99 shipping fee. The request forms are sent to the Friends Meeting PO Box. Then a small team purchases the requested items from approved vendors using budgeted money and donations made for the program. The vendor sends the packages to the women. For the indigent, these packages may be the only gifts that they will receive this year.

Last year Sacramento Friends received 479 requests and were only able to send 125 packages. The women whose requests we were unable to fill received an apology card. Every card ended someone's hope of a package for Christmas.

Because Sacramento Friends will focus on Corona, we are reaching out to see if another Meeting would have an interest in bringing a little bit of Christmas joy to women who have so little. For further information please contact us via the Contact page on https://sacfriendsmtg.org or leave a message on our phone 916-623-5534 and we will provide more information.