Baskets fit for Kings share holiday goodness; Tradition of giving covers more than a century

There are so many good will projects this time of the year that offer toys, clothing and candies sometime people tend to forget the programs that help families with food and holiday dinners.

Such a program exists and has been a tradition in Sidney since it was an Army Depot and the King’s Daughters were founded.

The baskets given are filled with food to make a Christmas dinner with all the fixings, 16-year member Ann Schaaf said.

When asked for how long the King’s Daughters had been providing baskets to area families, Dola Witters, a 13-year member, said, “We kind of talked about that at the Saturday meeting we had, around 1910.”

Irene Garcia, a 30-year member, said there had been an article in the Sun-Telegraph many years ago in which a local woman talked about one of the first baskets given - it was to her family.

They had been quarantined due to scarlet fever over the Christmas holiday, Garcia continued, and hadn’t been able to do any shopping for the holidays including food shopping.

So the basket found on the front porch full of food for the mother to cook for Christmas left a lifelong impression upon the woman and changed her life in a way where she never forgot the act of kindness even 60 plus years later, now in her mid-90s when according to Garcia she retold the story to Jack Lowe.

“There are some things in our history that said the original King’s Daughters, who came from New York, they were wives of the Fort Sidney soldiers, and at that time there was no welfare, they originated the boxes of food for the poor in Sidney, at the turn of the century, the other century,” Garcia explained laughingly at the latter.

The tradition is still one the members keep alive and strong, with 121 baskets to give out this year to families in need.

Witters said the King’s Daughters have contacts in which they receive names for people who may want the groups help.

“Then we send letters to those people,” Garcia said, “and they have to respond to that letter letting us know how many is in the family and if they do want to receive a food basket from us and we go from there.”

“Our local grocery stores actually do the physical part of putting the turkey, bread and stuffing mix and everything into the box. And city street department workers pick those up from the two stores (Sunny’s Super Foods and Safeway) and bring them to the Shelter House where we give out a lot,” Schaaf said. “We have three different sizes of food baskets according to the number of adults and children in the family.”

The ladies said the King’s Daughters have provided food to families of six and more over the years, but this year it seemed to them they had smaller baskets to put together – or baskets for families with four or less.

“Our mediums and larges this year don’t total what our smaller baskets do this year,” Witters said.

“Last year there were more large baskets,” Garcia said. “

“We’ve never had this many smalls,” Schaaf added, “It’s very new.”

For the most part, the food baskets are picked up by the families; however, Schaaf said if they need to drop off baskets they are always willing to do that as well.

Inside the boxes, families often find more than just food, “we do include mittens for families, and this year we got Girl Scout cookies, approximately a 100 boxes” Schaaf said to be added to each basket.

She added that the cookies may be a one-time thing for this year since the lady she lucked into getting the cookies from said she would have a better handle on her daughter’s ordering this next year.

The ladies said they enjoyed preparing the baskets and handing them out.

“I think the want was always there, you just get this tugging at your heart,” Garcia said.

For her handing out last year had a great impact on her life, “it tugged at my heart strings” she said, and pushed for her to want to hand out yet again this year.

Witters said she loved being a part of the food basket committee “because it’s the thing to do, I’ve been blessed, my family has been blessed and it is just good to be able to give back. It’s a big part of Christmas for my husband and me – he loves doing this as well.”

“I think this is important, it gives us insight into what is really going on,” Garcia said. She has been doing this for no less than 29 years.

“It’s just touching, because of everybody coopering from all the church memberships and working very hard at it, really. We are grateful to the citizens of Sidney really, to sponsors behind this, they are the money behind the work and that is great.”

All three ladies agreed this program has enriched their lives and hope the help the members of the food basket committee have touched the lives of all the people they have helped.