WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Heidi Lane puts together plenty of bouquets just like this one at her business, the Petal Parcel in Williamsport, but it's not flowers that she's focused on this time of year. Instead, she's thinking about groceries.
Meals are a staple of the holiday season. Lane is doing her part to make sure families in Central Pennsylvania have all the ingredients for the occasion.
Lane started Ellie's Bellies in 2022 by putting up a Facebook post, wanting to help pay for people's groceries during the holidays. In the first year, she raised $4,500.
"People could like my stuff, and they could be entered into like a drawing to help me pass out $100 gift cards, and then I also did $50 gas gift cards," said Heidi Lane, owner of Petal Parcel.
Lane and other community members hand out the $100 gift cards to random people at grocery stores. Mental health is something that's super important to Lane especially during the holidays. She says the holidays can be the happiest time of year but for some that's not the case.
"Our goal really is random acts of kindness; it's not who looks like they need it because you have no clue; it's just purely random," said Lane.
Some gift card recipients even pay it forward by giving it to someone else in need.
People would use it for their groceries and if they only had a couple items and there would be money left over they would literally hand it to the person behind them, so that was just—that's exactly what it's all about you just have no clue, you have no—you could literally save a life," said Lane.
Lane plans to hand out the gift cards during the first week of December. Her goal is to raise $5,000. Lane tells us it feels just as good to give as it does to receive.
"And just following the story on Ellie's Bellies and seeing how it all you know plays out is, I think, like everybody's favorite part, cause I do try to really document it well because I'm not doing this alone, so people like to see you know and hear the stories sometimes I'd have people post on the Facebook, or like try to find us," said Lane.
Lane is accepting donations for Ellie's bellies until November 22nd. To learn more about donating, click here.