Everyone knows Monical’s for the Family Pleaser, the Salad Dressing, and the Breadsticks (are you hungry yet?) but we wanted to highlight another reason why Monical’s truly does “Bring People Together”.

2013 continues our 9+ year partnership with Toys for Tots.  Many people only think of Toys for Tots near the holidays.  Preparation to pull off the toy drive takes all year.

Toys for Tots started in 1947 in Los Angeles by Major Hendrickson.  That year, 5000 toys were collected in LA alone.  Now the organization has grown to over 750 areas.  In Kankakee County, Monical’s works with Herb Volpe, who is the local coordinator for the county.  Herb handles distributing the collection boxes, coordinating volunteers, collection and sorting of toys.  He works with over 70 businesses and in 2012, Herb and his team collected 11,733 toys, 859 books and 445 stocking stuffers.

Monical’s Pizza Restaurant in Bourbonnais is particularly successful with the toy drive.   We spoke with Jon the manager to find out their secret.  His answer:  EMPLOYEES! Besides the generous Bourbonnais community, the Monical’s staff adds to the collection to help even more kids receive gifts on Christmas.

The Toys for Tots collection boxes will begin appearing in October.  Monical’s is happy to partner with Toys for Tots again in 2013 and together with your help, we cannot wait to see how successful this year’s toy drive will be!