Annual food basket program hits snag despite adapting to pandemic

The Salvation Army’s Havre branch is working with the Havre Community Food Bank on its annual project of handing out food baskets to low-income and needy families, but many who’ve signed up haven’t seen their applications completed due to inactive or unreachable phone numbers.

Salvation Army Havre’s Social Services Director Trina Crawford said this will prevent people from being able to pick up their food and necessitates that they get in touch with the organization to fix the problem before Nov. 16 — Monday.

She said this year’s food basket program is different due to COVID-19, the organization having extended the sign-up period consistently while asking people to sign up virtually instead of in person.

She said this is a more effective way of doing it during the pandemic because it means people don’t have to come into the office, which is only large enough to serve two people at a time and maintain social distance.

Crawford said COVID-19 hasn’t necessitated much adaptation in their operation outside of virtual sign-up, and the organization in Havre long ago made the changes necessary to do business safely during the pandemic, the wealth of virtual platforms out there having helped the organization in it’s efforts to run programs like this.

Despite this, the food basket project has run into this unfortunate complication that puts people at risk of not being able to collect their food.

Crawford said people who have signed up and haven’t received an email with a confirmation of completion and a pick-up time for their basket need to get in touch with the organization immediately so they can get their applications completed.

“I’ve got 60 or some odd people who have signed up and only 20 of them completed,“ Crawford said.

Despite the complications of this unusual year, she said many things about this year’s food basket program excite her, including the use of this virtual sign-up system despite it’s current issue.

“I love it because it gives people options,” she said, “They can just sign up in their living rooms.”

She also said she’s happy that this year food baskets can be provided for two major holidays not just one.

“What’s cool this year is that, for the first time in a lot of years, we’re going to be able to offer a Thanksgiving basket and a Christmas basket,” she said.

Crawford said, most years, the organization only had enough donations for one or the other, but this year, with more funds to use, they were able to do both, though she wasn’t at liberty to say where the donations came from.

Havre Community Food Bank Director Alma Garcia said the food boxes themselves will also contain new food items, which she said is great during this time of increased need.

“We have a lot to give this year,” she said, “... so the boxes are going to be a bit bigger so we can move a lot of these donations out to families where it belongs.”

She said extra funds from the CARES Act and the Hometown Hunger Fundraiser run in association with Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods have made this possible.

This year, HRDC decided it would be safer during the COVID-19 pandemic to make appointments and require masks to distribute the food baskets rather than handing food out at one event.

Crawford said not as many people have signed up as in previous years so far, but she suspects some procrastination is going on, and that the situation will change in the end.

Given the times, the layoffs and the shut-downs and all that, she believes more people will be in need this year than most, she said.

Crawford said people looking to sign up for the program can go to https://www.saangeltree.org before Nov. 16.

When they go to the the site, they will be asked for an invitation code, she said, but people should say “no” to this code and then enter the Havre Zip code, 59501.

Crawford said to sign up, people will need a photo ID for the adult completing the application, their Social Security card and all household members’ proof of residential address, as well as a proof of income.

She said people also looking to sign up for the Angel Tree program, formerly called Giving Tree, should also have gift ideas for the children — 12 or younger — the program provides gifts to during Christmas.

Both of these programs consider families who have incomes up to 125 percent above the poverty level, and the sign-up deadline for the Giving Tree program is Dec 3.

Crawford said the organization is also running its Adopt a Family program that allows people to get gifts for an entire family along with providing a food basket anonymously.

Sign-up for that program will run through Nov. 16 for the Thanksgiving basket and Dec. 14 for Christmas basket.

Garcia said the food bank is also working on other programs this holiday season including the Feeding Our Community Give-Away for people who weren’t able to sign-up in time for the food baskets or didn’t quite qualify.

People who sign up will be put on a list to receive a turkey box, she said.

Garcia said Town Pump’s Be a Friend in Deed, Help Those in Need, in which Town Pump matches funds donated dollar for dollar up to a goal of at least $750,000, is also still going on.

She said HRDC is trying to raise $10,000 by the end of the month but they aren’t quite there yet.