Two local organizations joined forces to help spread Christmas cheer to local hospice patients.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul at Christ the King Catholic Church and the Andalusia High School Anchor Club made boxes and filled them with groceries for patients at SouthernCare Hospice.

Tommie Powers, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, said that they were giving 50 pounds of food with a turkey or a ham.

“We are assembling 16 boxes,” he said.

Powers said the organization has been providing baskets of food to families in need and this year they wanted to add to the tradition.

Powers looked to partner with the hospice organizations in the community to serve the families needing food and dealing with medical issues within their families.

At Easter, they partnered with Comfort Care Hospice and at Thanksgiving, they partnered with Gentiva.

The Anchor Club was responsible for decorating the boxes in which they got community service hours for their time.

“It has been a joy to see their enthusiasm in serving our community,” Powers said. “Christmas is a season for sharing and caring for those in need in our community. Andalusia and surrounding communities has always shown that Christmas spirit. We are proud to partner with our youth and health care providers in our community this year. May we share a very merry and blessed Christmas.”

Anchor Courtney Bulger said that usually Anchors do a project at Christmas at Andalusia Elementary School for the special needs class.

“This year, the seniors gave presents to one class,” she said. “And everyone else did a box.”

Anchor Zaria Jones said that they decided to participate in the project four or five weeks ago and had about two weeks to make their boxes look beautiful.

“We got community service hours depending on what we did to the box,” she said. “We got one for wrapping and two for painting.”

Joy Ritter said the food box project is a great project.

“We get to learn how to help others,” she said.

Jones said they never know if the people they are helping are people who in the past have helped them.

“We want to spread holiday cheer,” she said. “And this isn’t just an ordinary box.”

The Anchors brought 10 students and their adviser to Christ the King to pack the boxes Tuesday afternoon.