2011 Holiday Basket Drive Serves Record Number of Families

Over 200 volunteers from the Shoreline community gathered at Kellogg Middle School Saturday morning, Dec. 17, to help assemble food boxes, sort toys and arrange clothing for some of the city’s most needy families.

“We really like that we can get our friends together and feel like we’re helping our community, it’s been really inspiring to see everyone out here this morning, said a Highland Terrace parent who came with her children to volunteer. “This is our second year coming out, and we definitely plan to come back out next year.”

Organized by the Shoreline PTA, Shoreline Fire Department, and Hopelink, the annual drive brings together hundreds of students, volunteers, and families throughout the community. This year, the local Rotary Club also joined the effort, volunteering Saturday to assemble food boxes and contributing close to 1,000 dollars toward fresh produce and other key groceries for families in need.

Extra help was needed as a record number of families signed up to receive boxes. PTA and Fire Department volunteers who have helped coordinate the event for years said that they see more and more applicants each year.

“Three or four years ago we had 250 boxes for families that signed up,” said Mary Sierchio, who is this year’s volunteer coordinator. “This year, we said we were going to do 500 boxes, but we kept getting applications, so we decided that were going to push for raising more donations. We’re putting together 547 boxes, so that’s over 500 families that signed up." 

According to the most recent U.S. Census, 8 percent of Shoreline residents are living below the poverty line. While only 4.2 percent of all Shoreline families live below the poverty line, the rate jumps to 14.9 percent for families living in households with a single mother and children under 18. 

Leslie Brooks of Hopelink, an organization that serves at risk families and individuals in north eastern King County, said that the number of students participating in the Shoreline School District’s free and reduced lunch program increased from 26 percent to 30 percent in recent years.

In addition to being a strong showing of community with kids and adults of all ages coming to volunteer, the annual holiday drive is a reminder to Shoreline residents that despite the country’s slowly recovering economy, thousands of families and children in Shoreline continue to live at or below the poverty line.