ELF food drive coming next week

Havre firefighters — hoping to beat the Hi-Line subzero weather — will hold their Everybody Loves Firefighters food drive early this year.

Firefighters will take their fire trucks, lights flashing and sirens blaring, through the east end of Havre next Wednesday, then they will go through the west end Thursday.

They will go door to door collecting nonperishable food items for donations to the Havre Food Bank.

The drive is the largest effort the food bank undertakes to collect food.

Cody McLean of the International Association of Fire Fighters said the drive goes back at least 30 years, but it was called off last year because of frigid weather.

Every kind of boxed or canned food will be accepted, he said.

The food collected will be used for the food bank at its busiest time of the year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, he said.

There is a special need for community volunteers to help out, he said.

He is asking people to show up at the fire station at about 5:30 p.m. on the nights of the food drive.

The volunteers usually follow the firefighters around the city in cars or on foot, helping them collect food from residents.

He asked people to have their food ready when they see and hear the firefighters come down the street. That way, volunteers can collect the food quickly.

McLean said all groups are welcome to help out, and they are excited to have children if they have adult supervision

During the night, food is periodically brought back to Van Orsdel United Methodist Church.

Volunteers at the church, where several tables are set up, divide the food into different categories before it is transported to the food bank.

People just need to show up to volunteer.

Any kind of boxed or canned food is needed, but food bank officials usually say that peanut butter is a favorite for children because it provides nutrients young people need.