Every year, McCarter Theatre raises money for an area charity as part of “A Christmas Carol.” After each performance, the actors from the play collect donations from the audience that go directly to an area non-profit organization. McCarter’s annual Community Assistance Program has raised more than $275,000 since 2009, benefiting numerous Mercer County organizations.
This year, McCarter is raising money for the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank to support its efforts to feed the hungry in Mercer County.
“A Christmas Carol” patrons can also visit the theater lobbies an hour before each performance to fill out a holiday card for children enrolled in the Mercer Street Friends Send Hunger Packing program. “A Christmas Carol” runs through Dec. 31 in McCarter’s Matthews Theatre. The Send Hunger Packing program provides hundreds of food-insecure students in 21 area schools with nutritious kid-friendly food packs to take home on Friday afternoons during the school year. The program was created to ensure that children have meals to eat over the weekend so they can return to school nourished and ready to learn.
“The holidays are a time to come together as family and as a community. We are touched to have had McCarter Theatre Center as such a great supporter of the Food Bank throughout the years,” said Brian Peterson, community resource liaison for the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank. “We are thrilled to work together to support Send Hunger Packing as well as many other much-needed programs. I thank both McCarter and its patrons for their support in our work to alleviate hunger in the community.”