Volunteers from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island were in abundance, as were several community volunteers, Saturday at the Oak Harbor post office, lending a helping hand to North Whidbey Help House.

About 30 volunteers gathered for the morning shift at the loading dock behind the post office to help unload and sort donations from the annual Mail Carrier Food Drive.

“We couldn’t do it without them,” said Help House executive director Jean Wieman.

The drive brings in about 6,000 pounds of food each year, said Wieman.

Volunteers waited for the mail carriers to return, quickly unloading bags of food into carts and wheeling them over to where rows of neatly labeled boxes were lined up to help the sorting go more quickly.

“Every year we learn something new,” said Wieman, explaining the labeling system corresponded to how the Help House warehouse is arranged. “It makes it easier to offload when we get everything to the warehouse.”

Last year the Help House helped more than 20,350 people on North Whidbey Island, spanning an area from Deception Pass all the way to Greenbank.

The emergency supplemental food bank fed over 500 families a month last year, and the demand keeps rising.

“We’ve been averaging five new sign ups a day,” Wieman said. “This (food drive) comes at a really good time every year.”
Support from Navy volunteers and the community is invaluable, said Wieman.

Personnel Specialist Lisa Mayfield, with VP-69, is one of Help House’s strongest advocates, using today’s social media like Facebook and text messaging, to get the word out to personnel on base.

“I heard about Help House when I got here about four years ago, and I’ve been here every single time since,” Mayfield said.

Other volunteers share the same spirit of cooperation.

“The community makes sure people support us, so we come back and support them,” said Master-at-Arms 1 Sean Weatherspoon.

“It gives us much joy to give back to the community and to see us out here helping those who need help,” agreed Tyicoya Ellis, Airman, Aviation Maintenance Administrationman, Striker with VAQ-135.

According to Wieman, 80 percent of Help House’s operating budget comes from donations.

Only eight percent of the money donated goes to administrative fees, meaning 92 cents of every dollar donated goes to providing food for Whidbey Island families.

Help House requires that applicants be 18 or older and provide proof of residency.

There is a simple, one-page application to fill out, and there are no income guidelines to follow, making it easy to access help when times get tough.

“You know, stuff happens,” said Wieman. “And for every one person that doesn’t really need our help, there are 10 who truly need it.”