Kellogg Elks share through community grants

KELLOGG — Among the Kellogg Elks Lodge awards, combating food insecurity for youth and seniors as well as resources for veterans were among the recipients to recently receive grant funding. 

The “Elks Care — Elks Share” motto will carry over to assist the Silver Valley Seniors Meals on Wheels program, the Silver Valley Snack Pak and reach local veterans in partnership with the quarterly VFW Stand Down events.

The Kellogg Elks stated the organization “hopes to bless the communities and residents with help from the Elks National Foundation and Kellogg Elks volunteers” in a press release. 

Grants through the National Elks Foundation help lodges serve populations in need through nonprofits involved in direct actions.

The Silver Valley Meals on Wheels was the gratitude grant recipient, receiving a $2,000 grant to support their food distribution efforts across the Valley. 

When Darrell Lemieux, Silver Valley Meals on Wheels program director, was asked how the group would apply the funds, he said the plan is to spread out the money across a few different budget lines for the agency.

“We are in need of a new dishwasher sanitizer, it will help with those costs as well as our everyday food costs rising,” Lemieux said.

The funds are also intended to help with the cost of maintenance for the Meals on Wheels delivery vans in use five days a week across the area.

For the fifth year running, the Elks secured a beacon grant for the Silver Valley Snack Pak program, with this year’s contribution reaching $4,000 and $21,000 overall.

The Snack Pak provides essential food to food-insecure grade school children at Pinehurst Elementary School, and has been able to establish relationships with wholesale vendors in order to receive better price points as food costs continue to rise.

Food choices are specifically selected to provide mostly healthy, child-friendly and easy-to-prepare meals along with snacks, so the students can feed themselves over the weekends.

President Christy Jacobs said, “The Silver Valley Snack Pak is so very grateful for the continued generosity of the Kellogg Elks and we appreciate them always being willing to help feed our kiddos of the Silver Valley!”

During the February Stand Down event for veterans put on through the Shoshone County VFW, a $1,500 grant from the Idaho State Elks Association provided helpful items to aid local veterans.

A $2,000 Spotlight Grant through the Elks National and a $1,000 Freedom Grant offered by the Elks National Veterans Service Commission provided funds for the Kellogg Elks to distribute gift cards, blankets, socks, slippers, first-aid kits and hygiene items to Shoshone County veterans.

VFW Post Commander Chris Marker said, “we just work together.”

Veteran services from the state and the county are there to answer questions about claims as well as the Spokane mobile VA, which deals with PTSD and sexual assault, the Department of Labor from Post Falls and the Kellogg Elks.

The pledge Elks organization has toward veterans is to never forget them as long as an order of the Elks exists.