I bet Santa was good to everyone in the community because they were sure good to Help House. We provided 1,159 holiday food baskets (85 more than last year) that fed 4,164 people (345 more than 2008). We could not have provided this service to the needy in our community without a lot of volunteers and generous donors.

I can’t possibly thank all those that contributed to Help House because there were way to many “anonymous elves” and I would inevitably forget someone. However, we would like to give a special thanks to Upchurch Scientific who donated 18,562 pounds of food, Baggs and the schools that filled up the new 90-passenger bus, the Key Club for their hard work in collecting food, all the commands, churches and people who just walked in and handed us food and money.

Here are our numbers for 2009: We distributed 7,085 food baskets that fed 18,929 people (that’s 176 more food baskets and 1,112 more people than 2008); we provided 117 Salvation Army prescription vouchers and made 150 Tele-Care calls. We are fortunate that we had 4,947 hours given to us by numerous volunteers.

We continue to be amazed by the generosity of our little town. Whenever we need a helping hand or our shelves start to look bare, we just put out the word and miraculously, the problem is resolved. We can only hope that requests for our services will decline this year as the economy hopefully rebounds.

Hunger isn’t only around during the holidays, it’s here 365 days a year. Because of your concern and contributions, rest assured, we will be able to continue with our mission of providing food to those in need. Though words don’t seem to be enough, please accept our sincerest thanks for supporting Help House.

Jean T. Wieman

Executive director

Help House