Holiday community food drive begins Saturday

The Christmas Baskets Program started in about 1982 at NOWCAP, moved to the Elks, then to the Episcopal Church, which now provides business status, auditing, and oversight. “Christmas Baskets” is a non-denominational program that serves anyone in need of the food and has people from the whole community who volunteer to help with the setup & distribution.

This year, because of the decreasing number of Scout troops and Boy Scouts available, the high school and some middle school students will start the Holiday Food Drive (Scouting for Food’s new name) with the November food collection.

High school students will put inserts into shopping bags, to be hung on residents’ doorknobs on Nov. 4. National Honor Society, FFA, athletes, Speech and Drama team members, 4-H members, the LDS Young Men and Young Women and other groups will help.

The next Saturday, Nov. 11, the groups will help bring the filled food bags in and sort items. Half of the food will continue to go to the Food Bank at the Community Federated Church and half will go to the Christmas Baskets program. Boxes for the Christmas Baskets are set up in the Parish Hall at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 7th and Arapahoe, where pickup and delivery also occurs. People can sign up for baskets at the H.O.P.E. Agency or the Help Center at Common Ground.

The Christmas Baskets program truly is an affair that involves the whole community. Donations of food, money, and help come from many organizations and individuals. Local organizations, businesses and schools, folks from local churches and many others participate to make this program successful. Needed food is shopped for locally and appreciation is given to those local merchants.

In 2016, boxes were filled for 100 families. Guidelines from the American Academy of Family Physicians are used for at least the minimum amount and type of food per person/box, with everyone getting some extra food there is enough. Turkeys or sliced ham, milk, potatoes and bread are the main perishables purchased with cash donations, with the non-perishable (canned and dried) foods usually donated by the community. Pie filling, cranberry sauce, and stuffing is also purchased if not enough is received, so every family can have these special holiday items.

Volunteers are also needed, and appreciated, to help sort food, pack boxes, cart out boxes, check names off the list, package the ham slices, deliver boxes, clear up and dispose of trash, mop the floor & set the tables back up. This last is a daylong affair and lots of work, accomplished with much appreciated gracious good humor and stamina.

Donations can be brought inside the main door of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Monetary donations can be made out to Christmas Baskets, and mailed to P.O. Box 950 in Thermopolis.

Basket signups can be done at the H.O.P.E. Agency, 426 Big Horn, or the Help Center at Common Ground, 5th and Arapahoe, Nov. 6 through Dec. 8. The Help Center is open from noon until 3 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday.

Box packing will be Thursday, Dec. 14 beginning at 6 p.m. at Holy Trinity Parish Hall, with pickups at the church on Saturday, Dec. 16 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.