City Market employee Sean Stewart wheels cartons of canned goods into Harbor Light Assembly of God Church Friday in preparation for the annual Holiday Food Basket giveaway. Organizers called this year's giveaway "record-breaking."
Organizers of the annual Thanksgiving food basket giveaway called the 2013 chapter of the program "record-breaking" Thursday.
In all, the community-funded program gave out $3699.88 worth of food to 89 families (give or take some latecomers who might have straggled in later), according to figures provided by Don and Bonnie Roher, who have helped organize the program for the last 11 years. That means 281 members of the Wrangell community will feast on turkey, green beans, fruit cocktail, stuffing, and other food items, who otherwise might not.
"It was a huge success," Bonnie Roher said. "We'll probably have a little less than 290 people in the end."
This year's numbers grew in part because 10 to 15 percent of the families who filed into the vestibule of Harbor Light Assembly of God church were new families, Bonnie Roher added.
Funds collected by the Wrangell Ministerial Association purchase the food – sold at discounted rates by local grocery stores.
While the numbers are important, they're not the whole story.
"It means a lot," said Amanda Gillen, who came in to the church toward the end of the food distribution with her 1-year-old son Logan Janssen. "It means we can have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We're so grateful they'll have a great Thanksgiving."
Gillen was taking home a basket for a family of four. For her, the basket wasn't the difference between starvation and food, but simply a way to make the holidays extra special.
Without the baskets "we'd probably figure something out," she said.
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