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In the days prior to the annual Easter Food Box giveaway by Food on Foot, HealthStar Physicians Group helped the nonprofit to make the holiday festive for the children.

An Easter drive to provide eggs filled with candy, stuffed bunnies, lambs, chicks, peeps, jellybeans, chocolate bunnies, plushes, candy, baskets, small Bibles and Easter grass for the children of those who receive the weekly food bags at Food on Foot was recently conducted by employees.

More than $500 in donations of supplies, plus a monetary donation was provided by HealthStar Physicians Group.

This weekend marks the final registration for families to receive Easter Food Boxes at Food on Foot. Registration forms are available at Food on Foot’s location at 1 Berkline Drive in Morristown, but these must be turned in by this Saturday to receive food or Easter baskets.

The giveaway will be held on Saturday, April 4 at Food on Foot.

“This is a blessing to me every year because (HealthStar) has done this so many years for me,” Food on Foot Founder/President Carolyn Jarnagin said. “I would say that it has been every big of eight years or more they’ve done this. Not only do the children count on us getting them an Easter basket, I count on HealthStar and their team to help me. It’s a tremendous blessing to me, as to the children we serve.”

HealthStar Medical’s Director of Physicians Services Deanine Diamond said that the HealthStar employees are very giving towards Food on Foot.

“They always want to participate in the Easter Basket Drive,” Diamond said. “It’s one of our biggest drives of the year and we have the most employee participation with it. I feel like it’s a much-needed cause in our community and HealthStar is always welcome to participate.”

Diamond also credited their marketer, South Marketing Group, with their help in this drive through their newsletter, flyers and help in picking up supplies.

“South Marketing has been a great help,” Diamond said.

Diamond and Jarnagin both made it clear that Food on Foot doesn’t exist without the community’s support.

“After 19 years, there are still people who don’t know there’s a Food on Foot to help children,” Jarnagin said. “Everything we participate in centers around the children.”

This past year, a new part of Food on Foot’s weekly distribution at its headquarters are individual birthday cakes for families with children receiving food bags. Kids receive birthday cakes by registering their names with Food on Foot. For some children, this is the only birthday cake they will receive.

Kenny Noah, owner of Southeast Industrial Construction, helps Food on Foot with a monthly contribution. He also gives the birthday children $5 in “Pal’s Bucks” each to go to Pal’s to get a treat, whether it be a hot dog, milkshake or frenchie fries.

“They love it,” Jarnagin said. “I had a little boy around five or six who came through who was one of the first to get the Pals Bucks. When I gave him those, his grandmother had brought him. He said, ‘You mean I can take this right now and go to Pal’s and get me a hot dog?’ I told him that he sure could. His grandmother took him over there and came back by to show that he got a milkshake and a hot dog!

“That’s because of the good hearts of SEI. Noah and every employee there want to help the community,” Jarnagin said.