For the second year in a row, Strength in Numbers hosted a Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning at Legacy Event Center. There was plenty of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage for all.

Executive Director Marchello Anderson said the event caps off the toy, hygiene and canned food drive the organization holds during November and December.

“Last week we had a big toy drive at Carter County Dodge and we collected quite a bit,” Anderson said. “The toys are for our gifts program where we help out families in the community who are struggling to provide Christmas gifts for their kids. The hygiene and the canned foods that we get, those go out to the different blessings boxes in the community.”

Anderson said 2024 was a year of growth for the nonprofit which began in 2021.

“We did our inaugural gala, we had the Walk for Autism, we started our young women’s life skills classes,” he said. “We’ve been doing the young men’s for three years, so starting the women’s classes has been a real blessing. Then we held our Thanksgiving Meals on Wheels Program where we served over 300 meals.”

For 2025, Anderson said the organization plans to continue and grow everything they did in 2024 in addition to starting a community garden.

“We’ve inherited a community garden, so we’ll be starting that,” he said. “We want to be able to teach the kids about horticulture and where food comes from.”