Open Hearts, Pantries Response Generous To North Idaho Food Drives

Donations to Christmas drives around North Idaho have been anything but Scroogelike.

And that’s a good thing, according to some volunteers, because the need for aid is on the rise.

Volunteers for the Post Falls Fire District have doled out presents and food to nearly 300 families.

Since the day after Thanksgiving, the district has been collecting donations from the community, and for the past 39 years, Kelly and Mary Frazey have been involved in the toy and food drive.

One basement room of the Frazeys’ home was stuffed with wrapped gifts, another basement room with bagged food and toys, and their garage with about as much food as a small grocery store.

“It’s grown so much. When I first got involved, we had 11 families and $67 and we made it work,” Kelly Frazey said.

At that time, the Fire District operated the drive out of the fire station.

This year, between 20 and 30 volunteer firefighters packed goodies into boxes and plastic bags, hauled things up from the Frazeys’ basement, organized food, loaded the boxes into the cars of needy families and delivered food to people without transportation.

More volunteers had spent hours wrapping the presents and Mary Frazey has been on the phone every few minutes, coordinating and talking with recipients.

“I’ll bet there’s close to 600 kids,” Kelly Frazey said. “But that’s what it’s all about, though, is to help the kids.”

The fire district customizes the baskets for each family, taking into account the number of family members and the age and gender of the children. At the end of the drive, leftover food goes to the food bank.

“It’s a once-a-year thing, but it covers a lot of territory,” said Fire Commissioner Joe Venishnick as he stocked a box with food.

And the people the fire district serves seem to appreciate it.

“I wouldn’t have had a Christmas dinner if we didn’t have this,” said one woman as a firefighter loaded boxes of food into her car. “It’s one of those years that everything was really tight. Next year, I’ll be donating to this.”

In Coeur d’Alene, Christmas for All had given out more than 625 boxes of food by Monday afternoon.

“This place was packed. There was barely room to walk,” said coordinator John Smith as he walked through the drive’s warehouse.

Christmas for All bought 62,000 pounds of food with the funds people throughout the county had donated, he said. As of Monday, the fund had somewhere near $90,000, he estimated.

“Sixty or 70 volunteers have been in here, and some of us have been here every day,” said Smith’s wife and co-coordinator Dolly Smith.

Thirteen years ago, the Smiths had been recipients of Christmas for All donations. The following year, they started volunteering for the drive.

“With the changeover in the Health and Welfare programs, we anticipated a lot more families and we were right. A lot of people are in need,” John Smith said.

At other Christmas drives to aid the needy, volunteers had noticed a similar trend.

“I would have said before getting into this that it wouldn’t be as bad (this year compared to last) because the weather wasn’t as bad,” said Jorja Auten, a volunteer for the Athol Bayview Careywood Food Bank. But “I thought we did more baskets this year than last year.”

The growing population base may be the reason for the increased need, she said.

The ABC Food Bank served about 200 families, giving toys to children in about 150 of those families, said Maureen Davis, another volunteer for the ABC Food Bank.

At the Hayden Food Bank, volunteers worked in conjunction with Christmas for All to hand out toys, clothing and food to about 110 families as of Monday.

“I think the need is great all the time and growing, too,” said volunteer Pam Fink.

“People are often asking for necessities and not for luxuries,” she said. “We have had a lot of requests for blankets. Even with children, most requests are for food, blankets and warm winter clothing.”

Helping people in their communities is what keeps volunteers like the Frazeys and Smiths donating their time year after year.

“This lady got laid off a week ago, and her husband is deceased and she has three little children,” Dolly Smith said, citing one example. “She came in and she had no tree and no gifts for her children.”

The volunteers gave her both a tree and gifts.

When another man and his wife came in to pick up a gift box, they both cried, she said.

“There’s just one (story) after another,” she said. “It is truly the epitome of the reason Jesus came: to show his love to the world.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo