Families Feeding Families to fill food needs in February

In the time between the charitable giving of the holiday season and the fruitful bounty of summer, North Idaho's food assistance programs find themselves in a late-winter lull.

"We’ve already noticed a slowdown," said Leslie Orth, executive director of the Post Falls Food Bank. "We’re in the second week of January and we’re already starting to diminish.

"At this time in four weeks, there will be a significant difference," she said. "In eight weeks from now, our warehouse will start looking empty."

Darrell Rickard, food bank program manager of Community Action Partnership Coeur d'Alene, said aside from a recent generous gift from Safeway, donations have all but come to a halt.

"We used to get food in daily," he said.

This happens just about every year, and just about every year The Press lets the community know the local food banks are in need of donations and supplies.

This year, the Salvation Army Kroc Center advisory board is working to fill this need before pantry shelves are bare.

The board recruited members of the community outreach committee to assess the effectiveness of certain programs. What they found was that the November food drive, Families Feeding Families, was successful, but duplicated efforts of that season and wasn't quite what the food banks needed at that time.

So February it is.

"We provide the greatest impact when we fill a void instead of duplicating efforts, and although the November drive was successful and positive, it didn’t really fit with our overall philosophy of filling a void," said Kip Sharbono, director of community outreach and youth education for the Kroc Center.

"Each year it showed up and we hadn’t done anything to impact our community when it was being highlighted that the time for food needs was in the winter months," Sharbono said of the annual Press article. "Thankfully, we have an amazing advisory board and community outreach committee who put thoughts into action and we hope this event can make the most impact and engage the community we live in to rally around impacting those in need during the difficult months."

The Families Feeding Families Food Drive will be held from Feb. 1-15. The goal is to deliver 500 boxes of food to a dozen food banks in the five northern counties on Valentine's Day.

"I think that it is amazing, you know, this community has done nothing but give, give and give some more," Rickard said. "Every time something like this happens, I become more and more amazed at how much this community gives."

Those who wish to donate can pick up empty grocery bags and shopping lists at the Kroc Center front desk or visit www.kroccda.org/giving to get the online list. Donations can be brought to the Kroc Center.

Food items needed: canned tuna, peanut butter and jelly, canned green veggies, canned fruit, canned soup, stew, chili, baked beans, pasta noodles, pasta sauce, rice, Hamburger Helper, mac and cheese, boxed cereal, instant oatmeal and crackers.

Cash donations will be accepted, but perishable donations cannot be accepted at this time.

The assistance programs in Kootenai County that will be supported are: Coeur d’Alene CAP, Disabled Veterans of America, Heart of the City-Father’s House Ministry, Lake City Community Food Bank, Post Falls Food Bank, Rathdrum Food Bank, Spirit Lake Food Bank and Canvas Church Food Pantry.