Kiwanis program is complex operation

Volunteers worked efficiently to serve up a nice Christmas dinner for many Sisters families. photo by Jim Mitchell Each month, the Kiwanis Club of Sisters, through the Sisters Food Bank, serves up to 80 families. Those families who meet federal income guidelines are eligible for a donation of food monthly from the food bank.

This December, with help from the Sisters/Camp Sherman Fire Department (providing toys and gifts), The Nugget (pet food), and other volunteers (labor), Sisters Kiwanis served an additional 129 families -- in one day.

Volunteers came to the Sisters Elementary School staging site from Kiwanis, the fire department, the schools, and the community.

Jamie Cundiff, home from college, came with father Gary and sister Kelly to help out.

"I don't get enough community service at school, so I came to help," Jamie said.

After the planning was done and food was ordered, the non-perishables were delivered to the school on Tuesday morning. Each recipient family had been assigned a number. Using that number with guidelines (for instance, the number of cans of green beans for a family of five), food was sorted and placed in boxes labeled with the recipient's number.

At the end of the day, 126 stacks of two to five boxes each had been set on the floor in numerical order. Early the next morning volunteers brought perishables (turkeys, vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs, butter) from Ray's Food Place.

Almost 4,000 pounds of pet food was labeled and set up for distribution along the covered sidewalk. Recipients were scheduled to arrive at the rate of six families every 15 minutes.

The operation was run so efficiently that many more families probably could have been handled in that time interval.

As a recipient arrived and checked in, their "number" was called out. Two volunteers wheeled a grocery cart down the lines of pre-boxed food, loaded the numbered boxes and were on their way back to the school entrance within minutes.

On their way out they were joined by a student and/or fire department volunteer with a bag of toys and gifts for the family. Exiting the building, eggs and milk were placed in the cart by other volunteers and others had already collected the appropriate pet food.

Within minutes of arrival most recipients were loaded up and headed home.

There were a few glitches. All recipients had been mailed a card noting their pickup time. Some were either not received, lost, or not read. When recipients were overdue, other volunteers called to remind them. Most appeared shortly thereafter.

But not all. At the end of the day, volunteers loaded up several unclaimed "baskets" and attempted to deliver them.

In two cases the addresses were non-existent. Another had given an address from which she had moved over a year earlier. After an hour's fruitless search by car the search was called off. However, the next morning, with some sleuthing in city utility records, contacting possible acquaintances and using the internet's reverse telephone directory, family members were contacted and food and gifts were delivered at 9 p.m. that evening.

Several recipients shed grateful tears for the gifts of food and toys. Jeanne Nolander, at the Chamber of Commerce, received a tearful request for a phone number to call for thanks. The caller mentioned that she only had $3 left in her pocket and was grateful for the food.

On his application, one father asked, "Can you please give me a bike for my son?" He got his request, returning home with one of two brand new bicycles donated by Lynn Johnston.

It was probably one of the most efficiently run volunteer efforts in Sisters this year and co-chairs Ray and Katie Powers and Glenn Keeran all agreed that it was a huge success. Keeran emphasized that this annual event could not occur without community support and added a big "Thank you."