Community Christmas Food Baskets Still Important Food Insecure

Volunteers help prepare the Christmas food boxes for the 2021 distribution. (submitted photo)

December 15, 2021

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Rotary has helped spearhead the annual Christmas Food Basket program for the past few years.

It was a project that the former Human Resource Council did until they disbanded and Rotary took over in 2011.

Eddie Pierson, President for the Oskaloosa Rotary, said that they were once again joined by members of the Oskaloosa Middle School student government in packing the boxes for distribution to families who may be suffering from food insecurity.

In a conversation with fellow Rotarian Shawn Christ, Pierson said, “You know, there’s no way that we could do this as smoothly and as efficiently as we do if we didn’t have the help of these students.”

“We’re very grateful that they are willing to come and help and volunteer.”

The money for the project is raised from community donations and other fundraising efforts. “We’ve got a lot of citizens within the community that donates to this project,” explained Pierson.

“The great thing about this project is it’s not just a Rotary project, but it really is a Mahaska County and an Oskaloosa Project.”

A new addition this year to the basket was a cookbook that contained 11 recipes that can be made with everything provided in the food basket.

This year, the group distributed approximately 400 baskets, down from just over 600 baskets back in 2013 when the country was coming out of recession.