Valley agencies serve holiday meals to thousands

MAT-SU — It was a blizzard of activity, a flurry of volunteerism and holiday spirit Monday and Tuesday as dozens of volunteers helped make the season a little merrier for about 200 local families.

With temperatures dipping well below zero, the warmth radiated from the old Carrs building in Palmer as the Palmer Food Bank distributed boxes. All the boxes contained enough food for a family to have a nice holiday dinner with all the trimmings, and then some, said Henry Guinotte.

“They have their choice of a turkey or ham and all the fixings for a Christmas dinner, and a lot more,” said Guinotte, longtime volunteer organizer of the Palmer Food Bank. Guinotte recently retired as head of the pantry, but couldn’t keep away from the holiday giveaway. “We figured people need more than just a Christmas dinner. They need food through the New Year, so we give them Christmas dinner plus, and the plus is very important.”

It’s that extra that sets this time of year a part as special for the food bank and its customers, said Jeanne Borega, who took over for Guinotte as the organization’s manager. It’s made possible because of the generosity of the community this time of year, she said.

“Our biggest donations come October, November and December, then it kind of peters off,” she said. “We scrounge things all year-round and the donations are more than we need for right now, but we have to spread that throughout the year.”

More than that, though, is the feeling volunteers get when seeing the humble gratitude in the faces of those the food bank serves, Borega said.

“A lot of people are really grateful,” she said. “They’ll hug you and thank you and are really appreciative, and that makes me feel good.”

Providing food — one of the basic necessities of life — is rewarding, added Guinotte, a retired Presbyterian minister who came to the Valley in 1972. By 1974, he was running the Palmer Food Bank.

“Some of these people wouldn’t have a holiday if we didn’t help them,” he said, adding the reaction of people who receive help varies. “Some people are proud or ashamed, some are overjoyed and some are longtime welfare people who say ‘we deserve this.’ But the ones who are embarrassed, I tell them that their neighbors are hurting, too, and we don’t want you to hurt at Christmas time.”

Borega said this week’s distribution — held at the former Carrs building because the food bank’s old red store isn’t big enough to host the event anymore — went fairly smoothly.

“We didn’t have any major glitches,” she said. “We kind of followed Henry’s way of doing things and we had a lot of volunteers. A lot of people pop up out the woods to help.”

That seems to be the holiday formula for local food banks, said Eddie Ezelle, executive director for the Food Pantry of Wasilla. In addition to helping support the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas Blessing events, the pantry serves anywhere from 2,900 to 3,400 people a month — not just at holiday time.

But make no mistake, while many local families benefit from the food pantry at the holidays, it’s also a make-or-break time for the pantry, Ezelle said.

“It means a lot of work on our behalf,” he said. “This is the time when we do most of our collections. It’s the giving season. That’s when people are more aware that people need help with food or whatever. That’s great, because in January and February after the Christmas season and it gets into tax season, we tend to dry up.”

Along with population growth has come an increased need, especially during a tight economy, Ezelle said. Also, nobody wants to think others in their community go hungry, especially during the holidays.

“It seems like we’re serving an average of 170 people a day, enough food to feed those families, which is a lot of people,” he said. “We’re actually giving out more food than we have in the past. While it appears we have less food on the shelves, it’s because we’re moving more food out the door.”

Ezelle also said that while the Wasilla Food Pantry helps hundreds of people a week, there’s likely a larger need out there. That’s because pride and a sense of embarrassment sometimes keeps people from asking for a little help.

“Unfortunately, there are people who are uncomfortable with it,” he said. “A majority of the people (served) are working corps, they just can’t quite make it. That’s probably the biggest anxiety, just getting through the door. We don’t judge them. Occasionally, you get the mother in tears because there was a divorce or the house burns down and she has to humble herself to ask for food. As long as we have food, we’ll give you food.”

Many of the volunteers at the food pantry are former or current clients, Ezelle said. It’s that attitude of paying it forward that inspires him, he said.

“I feel humbled and bad because I can’t give them more,” he said. “I wish we could give them enough food that they wouldn’t have to worry about it for two or three weeks.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

• There’s still help out there if you missed out on the organized holiday food events hosted by local food banks. In Wasilla, the Wasilla Food Pantry is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today, and will be closed Monday and Tuesday. It will re-open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday.

If you need help, Wasilla Food Pantry Executive Director Eddie Ezelle recommends calling the United Way Mat-Su’s help hotline at 211. Folks at that number can help connect people with the right agencies.

• Or, people can show up and eat at the 21st annual Christmas Friendship Dinner, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Dec. 25 at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla.