Mary [not her real name] had a full-time job at a medical facility when the shutdown hit in March. The office closed. She was at home with her four kids. Then the office reopened. She was ready to go back to her job, but the kids were still at home and she couldn’t afford daycare.

Her financial situation worsened. She needed help. For the first time, she turned to Westbay Community Action for assistance. Her eyes glistened as she told her story Saturday.

“Please, no pictures,” she asked as she opened the back door to an SUV to reveal a stroller. Joslyn Groves, assistant director of social services at Westbay, carried a cardboard box, one of 100 the Warwick Rotary Club had delivered barely a half hour earlier and slid it into the vehicle. Mary was handed a Dave’s Fresh Marketplace gift card, also part of the Rotary food basket. Westbay family support manager Desarie Prestly was behind Groves carrying a colorfully wrapped bag of gifts that was delivered Saturday morning by members of Providence Mutual.

Mary tried to help, pushing the stroller into the recess of the car. She was lost for words. Groves and Prestly were cheery, upbeat, wishing Mary a happy Christmas. They know how difficult it is for those who have fallen on difficult times to accept help. They are practiced at making people feel comfortable. They are there to help, not be judgmental.

Groves said there are the “takers,” those who are out to get what they can for free, but that is not the norm. Mary is one of the hundreds who have turned to Westbay for SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, benefits and heating fuel assistance through LIHEAP, or the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program. Mary became one of 174 adopted families this year. Federal funds are not available for the program, which relies entirely on community contributions. Since 1983, Warwick Rotary has provided 100 Christmas baskets.

For years, Rotary Club members made home deliveries. Boxes contained all the ingredients for a Christmas dinner including a turkey. The program transitioned to having families pick up baskets at Westbay and a supplement to the Adopt a Family program.

Working with the city human services and the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program that coordinates those needing assistance and churches and organizations seeking to help so as not to duplicate gifting and meet all the needs, Westbay selects families for adoption.

Groves said with the pandemic, this year has been especially demanding. She said the need is greater with between 30 and 130 cars pulling into the Westbay Marketplace daily for food – she estimates the number of people receiving the food at two to four times those numbers. As the pandemic and the loss of jobs it means for so many has pushed up the need, it has also impacted those who traditionally have helped. Sponsor businesses are also hurting. Some have closed. Others have reduced work forces and haven’t been able to conduct adopt a family programs.

Yet there are the heartwarming stories.

Groves tells the story of the man who was distraught that he didn’t have the money to buy ingredients to make cookies. Initially, this didn’t seem a situation bearing immediate attention, especially when others can’t afford heat or food. As the Westbay staff delved into the details, they learned the family needed much more. But cookies were on top of the list.

As a Christmas tradition, the man baked cookies for his neighborhood. This year he realized he didn’t have the money to do it.

Groves said the man broke into tears as he told her why he wanted to be adopted.

“Emotionally, he couldn’t handle it,” she said. Westbay got him the cookie ingredients, many of which were from the shelves of the Marketplace.

Meeting specific requests are big part of the Adopt a Family program. Stephanie Williamson, who runs the program at Providence Mutual, said Westbay gives her a list of toys that are written on cards and hung from a tree in the office. Employees fulfill the requests, wrapping the gifts that are then delivered to Westbay to be matched to the family. Williamson said she and those donating never get to see the names of recipients, but that doesn’t dampen the spirit of giving.