Kudos to a generous community
—Photo by STAR SILVA Taylor and Jamie Cromwell, left, serve Helen Hester during the Helping Hands of Naples’ ‘Soup’s On’ lunch, held every Friday at South Boundary Fire Protection District Station one.
The Boundary County Community Action Partnership, Boundary County Ministerial Association and the Boundary County School District would like to thank the community for their generous support throughout this holiday season.
Community Engagement Liaison Liz Bigsby said the winter months are the hardest time for people in need and if it were not for this community and their generosity, many people would go hungry.
“We receive an abundant amount of food donations and support from individuals, businesses and community organizations — it’s above and beyond our expectations,” Bigsby said.
The Community Action Partnership receives donations from area grocery stores and the Grocery Rescue program, which is affiliated with Second Harvest and Safeway, and provides CAP with thousands of pounds of food throughout the year.
“The program brings in a tremendous amount of food, but we want to thank the community for their amazing contributions,” Bigsby said.
The Boundary County School District encouraged students to get involved in the fight against hunger by campaigning a friendly, food-raising challenge between the Boundary County Middle School and the Bonners Ferry high School. Together, with the community’s support, the students’ efforts supported holiday food boxes that provided full meals for families in need during Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Bigsby said the food boxes consisted of a turkey or ham and all of fixins’. All of the hams and turkeys were provided by the community and Boundary County Ministerial Association volunteers put the boxes together.
Cap also works with the Tree of Joy program which provides toys for children in the community and this year Bigsby said they were able to provide 89 children with Christmas presents.
CAP and the Ministerial Association said they try to inspire and equip people to end poverty by connecting them with area resources that will enable them to overcome crisis situations.
Ministerial Association President Henry Yoder said the Ministerial Association can assist with temporary shelter, gas money, rent, electric bills and groceries.
“Our goal is to provide temporary assistance to people in need so that they are able to get back on their feet,” Yoder said.
In addition, local churches and community outreaches, such as Helping Hands of Naples, provide weekly lunches for people who are in need or members of the community who would just like to gather for a meal.
Grace Bible Fellowship offers a free lunch every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The United Methodist Church offers a free meal every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Then the leftover food donations make their way out to the Naples’ South Boundary Fire Protection Station where Helping Hands of Naples utilize the produce and serve up delicious, hot soups to the community every Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For information about all of the area resources, contact Liz Bigsby at 208-267-3663 or visit the CAP office at 6665 Main Street.