Volunteers with the Kettle River Lions Club were very busy this past weekend as they put together Christmas food hampers for more than 140 families from Rock Creek, Grand Forks, Midway, Bridesville and Greenwood. This year’s program will provide Christmas hampers to more than 140 families across the Boundary region. The majority of food for the hampers was purchased at AG Foods in Osoyoos. Organizers with the Kettle River Lions Club purchased just under $9,000 worth of groceries at AG Foods last Thursday for the hampers. (Contributed photo)
The Kettle River Lions Club and AG Foods grocery store in Osoyoos have teamed up once again to ensure dozens of families in the Boundary region will have a happy – and nutritious – Christmas.
The Kettle River Lions Club has been sponsoring a Christmas hamper program for several years and for the second year in a row, they have purchased all of their food items for the hampers from AG Foods in Osoyoos.
“We just spent six dollars short of nine grand purchasing all of the food for our Christmas food hampers,” said Phil Gunhouse, who helps organize the annual program with club president Les Jackman.
AG Foods manager Derek Morgan has been a wonderful supporter of the Christmas hamper program and sells many of the food items – including hams, turkey, potatoes and carrots – at incredibly good prices, said Gunhouse.
“It’s a win-win scenario because we purchase several thousand dollars of groceries from his store and he really helps us out by offering fantastic deals on all of the food that we purchase,” he said.
Every one of the Kettle River Lion’s Club’s 25 members is involved in supporting the Christmas food hamper program, said Gunhouse.
This year’s program will assist 144 families from the Boundary region, including families in Rock Creek, Midway, Grand Forks, Bridesville and, for the first time, Greenwood, said Gunhouse.
“The Grand Forks food bank had been sponsoring a Christmas food hamper program for the people in Greenwood for the past several years, but they decided this year they would no longer extend their services to help the less fortunate in Greenwood, so we found out and decided to step in to fill the void,” said Gunhouse.
“With the addition of new clients in Greenwood, we’ve seen the number of Christmas food hampers that we have to prepare jump from 118 last year to 144 this year. That’s a substantial jump, but we’re very pleased we’re going to be able to help even more people this year.”
Several schools in the Boundary region also held their own Christmas food drive fundraising programs and donated $700 that went towards the purchase of food items for the Christmas hampers, said Gunhouse.
“It was absolutely incredible what the students and teachers have done at these schools,” he said. “They all chipped in with various fundraisers and were kind enough to turn the money over to help us with our Christmas food hamper program.”
The groceries were purchased from AG Foods last Thursday and the majority of Christmas hampers were handed out over this past weekend, said Gunhouse.
Each hamper contained a turkey, ham or chicken, a five-pound bag of potatoes, three-pound bag of carrots, tea or coffee, cans of non-perishable food items, jams and jellies and tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes, he said.
The Kelowna Food Bank has also generously donated loaves of bread for the Christmas hampers, said Gunhouse.
“They will have everything they need to enjoy a full-course Christmas dinner,” he said. “If it wasn’t for our Christmas food hampers, a lot of these people wouldn’t be able to enjoy a nice Christmas meal … that’s why we’re so proud of having this program in place because we don’t want to see anybody not be able to enjoy a great meal at Christmas time.”
The owners of the Midway Hotel have donated some of the proceeds from their weekly meat draw to purchase gift certificates that will also be distributed in the food hampers.
‘It’s just a really good community effort involving a lot of people who want to help and give back,” said Gunhouse.
Gunhouse, who retired to Rock Creek five years ago after living in Kelowna for many years, said he’s proud of all the good work done by the Kettle River Lion’s Club since he joined.
“It’s all about giving back to the community and we have a lot of dedicated members who like to do their small part to help out,” he said. “Our Christmas food hamper program really is a team effort and we thank everyone who joins in to help.”
Morgan said AG Foods is proud to be involved in this worthy initiative.
“It’s a great program that helps a lot of people at Christmas time and we’re glad to be involved,” he said. “This is our second year and I’m sure we’re going to be involved for many more.”
Morgan said staff in his store were kept very busy gathering the food and loading up the trucks that brought all of the food purchased up the hill to be distributed to families in the Boundary region.
Morgan actually came in on his day off to help Gunhouse and Jackman and a couple of other volunteers load the trucks last Thursday.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
