The Thanksgiving “Oozegiving” food drive is a staple event of the Ooze Foundation, and while COVID did put a bit of a damper on this year’s plans, we were still able to provide even more families than last year with a full Thanksgiving feast.
Along with donations from 6 local dispensaries and one partner company, we assembled meals for 250 Detroit families who would otherwise have had to go without their annual holiday meal. Each family received a turkey, bag packed full of side dishes like macaroni and cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans, and a pie for dessert.
“Oozegiving is one our favorite events to put on,” said Ooze Chief Financial Officer Vince Ayar. “We are always looking for ways to give back to our Detroit community, and the need for events like this has been exacerbated by the pandemic this year. It’s a great feeling to know that you’ve put a smile on an entire family’s face by filling their stomachs with great food.”
In order to keep everyone involved safe and COVID-free, Oozegiving was turned into a drive-thru event. The Ooze team masked up and wore gloves to ensure everyone kept their germs to themselves. Once checked in with their registration number, cars entered the donation line and the Ooze team placed all items directly into the trunk, keeping all contact between people to a minimum.
Before the pandemic began, there were tons of people already struggling to make ends meet, especially in Detroit. Now almost a year into the fiasco, those needs have grown exponentially. It is our goal in 2021 to use the Ooze Foundation to find ways to continuously give back and lessen the burden of poverty that weighs so heavily on our community.
“Now that we have an established organization to conduct these events and charitable efforts,” said Ayar, “we have so much more bandwidth to do things like this all throughout the year and not just during the holidays. We know that there are people really hurting out there, and we’re going to make a real effort to ease that pain in any way we can.”
Also in News
2022 Oozemas Holiday Toy Drive
We were finally able to host our big holiday extravaganza, the way it was intended! Oozemas 2022 was a huge success thanks to Santa, the Grinch, a dance party, coney lunch, crafts, and giving away 1,000 gifts.
2022 Oozegiving Turkey Drive
Oozegiving 2022 was a success! We passed out 300 full Thanksgiving dinners to Detroit families, including a turkey, stuffing and sides, veggies, and sweet potato pie.
Annual Oozemas Holiday Toy Drive 2021
On December 19th 2021, the Ooze Foundation hosted the third annual Oozemas Holiday Toy Drive for underprivileged kids in the Detroit community. This year we were able to give out 1000 gifts which is the most gifts to date! Learn more about the event in this blog!