E.L.F. food drive looking for another strong year

Havre firefighters are getting ready to take to the streets Wednesday and Thursday as part of their annual Everybody Loves Firefighters food drive for the Havre Food Bank.

The E.L.F. drive has been going on for about 25 years, firefighter Cody McLain said.

McLain has been with the Havre Fire Department for 13 years. He said the purpose of the E.L.F. drive is to stock up the food bank for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Firefighters and volunteers travel through the neighborhoods with fire engines, lights flashing, and go door to door asking for food donations.

“We try to hit every house in town,” McLain said. “We do the west side of Fifth Avenue on Wednesday night, and Thursday night we’ll do the east side of Fifth Avenue.”

The firefighters break the city into 10 sections, McLain said, and try and cover five sections one night and the other five the other night. He added it usually takes firefighters and volunteers about two to three hours to get through the five-section areas.

McLain added it would be helpful if people left their food donations just outside their front doors and left their porch light on to indicate a donation is there. He said this would help them move through neighborhoods quickly and increases how many houses they can get to in a night.

Local Havre residents are asked to donate any non-perishable, canned or boxed food items.

The Havre Fire Department is asking for volunteers to assist the firefighters in collecting food donations Wednesday and Thursday nights. McLain said some years they get a lot of volunteers and other years they don’t.

People who want to volunteer, he added, can show up at the Havre Fire Department at 5:30 p.m. At the station, volunteers will get paired up with a firefighter and a fire truck or ambulance.

“Any sort of groups, service groups or youth groups, high school, college teams are a good help,” Mclain added. “They usually work well together and collect a lot of food.”

McLain said the fire department generally has a lot of volunteers Wednesday, but they really struggle to get volunteers for Thursday night.

McLain said what he likes about the E.L.F. drive is that it helps out the community of Havre and the less fortunate, “especially with the holiday season.” He added the food bank is very grateful for their assistance in bringing in food donations and the E.L.F. drive helps them prepare for the holiday season. It’s great to see how supportive the community is, he added.

People can also drop their food donations at the fire department or at the food bank, McLain said.

Look for a story about the Food Bank in Tuesday’s edition of the Havre Daily News.