Food pantry gives out over 100 Christmas baskets
Volunteer Karen Casey handing out a Christmas food basket at the Libby Food Pantry on Wednesday. (Bethany Rolfson/TWN)
The Libby Food Pantry gave out over 100 Christmas baskets on Wednesday to families in the area.
The baskets includes canned vegetables, yams, pudding, olives, chicken broth, pineapple, sweet potato, cake mix, stuffing, frozen cherries and fresh potatoes. The people who signed up for a basket also has a choice of a chicken, ham, or turkey.
According to director Kathy Lauer, the pantry made up 100 bags the night before and volunteer Karen Casey said that she made up more Wednesday morning.
Over the past year, 478 households with 984 people applied for the Libby Food Pantry. Out of those people, 180 households, with 390 people within those households used the food pantry each month on average. The average monthly household income for these families is $1,015 per month, almost $2,000 less than the average $2,909 average monthly income in the 59923 zip code.
The pantry received 74,617 pounds of food by donation or purchase in the past year, and as of Tuesday, the pantry had given out 92,455 pounds of food, which does not include the over-100 Christmas baskets they gave out on Wednesday.