They bring luxury Christmas packages to minimum income families. ‘Just enjoy it and pass on a good deed’

Swinging excitement in Beverwijk. Singing Christmas hits, volunteers stroll past tall piles and boxes of food and other products and put them in green bags. Christmas packages. “Doing good never goes to waste,” it says, “He who sows, reaps.” In this room in Beverwijk, Christmas packages are put together for people living in poverty. There are four hundred this year.

The dozens of volunteers all wear black T-shirts with the logo of Life With Joy, the foundation that puts together the Christmas packages. Why they with the action? “Because it is important to give something to people who often have nothing at all,” says volunteer Corina Wietsma. “There are people living around here who work two or even three jobs to put food on the table in the evening. They survive. Then it is nice to donate these things, nice socks for example.”

The Life With Joy Foundation is in the Netherlands that combat poverty and loneliness, and is financially supported by it NRC Readers Fund. This fund holds an annual Christmas campaign among readers. Last year, 316,000 euros were raised.

Luxury products

Putting together and distributing luxury products for low incomes is an initiative of Stephanie-Joy Eerhart (40) from Heemskerk, and board member of the foundation. When it comes to enduring misery, she has the right to speak. After a “complicated childhood” due to, among other things, hearing loss and a disability in her foot, she was homeless for a long time and was traumatized.

As a resident of a shelter, she once received a Christmas package that included a hat from the Rabobank, a pen from the Tax Authorities and a dented candle. That did not make her happy, says Eerhart, who in daily life is a department manager at the Salvation Army. “I was in bad shape. I had relapsed into a drug addiction. Then I received that Christmas package. Items that were clearly obtained for free, or food that was just approaching its expiration date, emphasize that you as the recipient should be happy with whatever you get. It is not nice to be dependent.”

That is why these Christmas packages, thanks to donations from entrepreneurs and support from funds such as NRC, are filled with more or less luxurious products, “things that minimum income people normally do not have money for.” Such as A-brands of milk and cheese, whipped cream, sausages, festive stollen and tangerines, but also a dog toothbrush, comic books, Christmas lights, amaryllis bulbs and gift vouchers for the toy store and the cinema.

Eerhart: “We believe that a luxury package alone warms the heart of the recipient. This makes the recipients feel seen and loved again.” The recipients do not have to show gratitude. “We say: just enjoy it and pass on a good deed.” The latter must be taken literally, because the package also contains a brochure with the ‘challenge’ to do something for someone else in your turn: send a card; having a cup of tea with someone from a care center; buy a street newspaper from a homeless person; chat with a lonely neighbor; deliver flowers. “Many minimum wage earners already do a lot anyway, I often notice that. People call us and say ‘come and collect 50 euros’ and when I stand in their garden, I think: you really need it yourself.”

Ever grown

Stephanie-Joy Eerhart put together the first Christmas package sixteen years ago, when she got her own home after a long period of homelessness. She mainly bought special offers at supermarkets. If the purchase of one product included a second one for free, she kept it and gave it to poor people at Christmas. During that time she met her wife (‘preferably no surname in the newspaper’). Trudie: “When we started dating, she had groceries for Christmas packages everywhere in her apartment. Enough for three packages. I then said: let’s make six together. That number has continued to grow through friends and family and we had to set up a foundation a few ago.”

For years, Eerhart and her helpers delivered the packages themselves. “What we saw there was sometimes very bad,” she says. “People without carpet, who had no money for a bed and slept with mattresses on the floor. We were crying when we got back.” She sees many people washing under the tap. “Because showering is too expensive.” The Christmas parcels are now collected by aid workers from organizations they know well. They then deliver the packages to their own clients.

Zoom in

After the Christmas rush, it will soon be time to put together other packages. Eerhart: “We hear from care providers that many of their clients are cutting back on cleaning supplies. While cleaning often also gives you more space in your head. That’s why we want to make such packages.” And in the summer they would like to make special children’s packages for the second year in a row.

The foundation is also busy making emergency packages. “We already have fifty radios, fifty water bags and fifty backpacks. If you get everything you should have, it costs 300 euros. And then you also have to have 70 euros in cash per person. Many people cannot afford that at all.”

The foundation is still looking for its own warehouse, in particular to store food products and to be able to give away even more Christmas parcels next year. Eerhart: “Would you like to mention that?”

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