Carrying on tradition

A North Idaho College tradition helps make Christmas a little brighter for its students and employees in need.

During finals week, those students or employees and their families who have been identified as being in need received boxes supplying enough food for three to four days. This year there were 22 recipients.

“We try to put together complete meals,” said Randy Bennett, NIC Food Service manager. Bennett’s department collects and distributes the food while the Staff Assembly, chaired by Nancy Edwards, organizes the campuswide holiday food basket drive.

“The Staff Assembly has done (this) in the last decade in some way shape or form,” Edwards said.

In 1995, 17 families received cash and six received food baskets. The program was originally started to serve needy students, but it now benefits any student, employee or faculty member, Edwards said. Last year, 22 families, the same number as this year, received baskets, Bennett said.

The college begins the food drive the end of November, and names of individuals who may be in need are called in to Bennett.

“We’re very strict with confidentiality,” Edwards said.

People receiving the food are appreciative, Bennett said, and want to know who gave their name.

“We say Santa gave us your name,” Edwards said.

“(We say) people here on campus want to give you holiday cheer,” Bennett added.

Employees who receive baskets generally have experienced an illness and/or have been out of work for a while, Edwards explained. Among the students receiving baskets are single mothers and younger students who don’t have a good work history.

“If you talk to any college student, the No. 1 concern in life is food,” Bennett said.

Staff, faculty and students donate food. The college receives everything from canned spaghetti sauce to desserts to sweet potatoes. “Some foods are easy to put meals to,” Bennett said. But “where am I going to put seven cans of sliced beets?”

Last year, about half the baskets contained frozen turkeys. This year, a couple of weeks into the food collection, the college had received only one turkey. Edwards speculated that the decrease was due to the fact that most local grocery stores didn’t have specials offering free turkeys this year.

Besides food, money is donated. That money goes into some of the baskets to fill in the gaps and ensure that the recipient will have complete meals. The boxes of food are delivered to the recipient at their home or on campus, depending upon the recipient’s preference.

“My greatest fear is that (there will be) a lot of names and not of a lot of food. But that hasn’t been the case,” Bennett said.