Families in need got a helping hand Monday through the annual Feed A Family program, which sought to bring Christmas dinner to the table.

From 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., volunteers gathered at Hy-Vee as part of the Feed A Family drive to give away about 655 meals to Austin families, plus about 30 more meals given out in Blooming Prairie.

“What’s nice about when you live in a community [like Austin], on Christmas day when you’re at home eating your dinner and you’re opening your gifts, you know that anyone that put their hand out got help for the holiday season,” Hy-Vee manager Todd Hepler said.

Since each meal feeds at least a family of four, Hepler explained the baskets will feed about 2,500 people this Christmas. In total, the baskets equaled more than $40,000 in food. Hepler was grateful to the community for donating this year.

“We’ve had organizations donate money to us, we’ve had private individuals, customers,” he said. “And what we try to do is we try to take that seed money and secure an incredible dinner for [people].”

Salvation Army Case Manager Lori Espe said many people donated a little bit here or there while they shopped, donating a package for $10 anonymously. She hoped the slight decrease in applications this year was due to a decrease in need.

“It’s really good because the Salvation Army, we try to do as much as we can for the people in the community,” Espe said. “And we have been doing Christmas baskets for many years.”

The idea for Feed A Family sparked at KAUS Radio, and Hy-Vee, the Salvation Army, and several donors and sponsors soon came on board. Since the Salvation Army is busy with other drives during the holiday season and had a lack of space, Espe was pleased to see other groups take on the Christmas meal program. When Hy-Vee got involved, Espe was happy to see the community get involved too.

“It was the perfect answer at that time,” she said. “It helped still feed the people that needed to be fed and have a bigger place. And it gets the community involved too.”

Volunteers from the Cooperative Response Center, Thrivent Financial, the dairy princess and many businesses, individuals, and others came out Monday to help pack and hand out reusable bags filled with about $60 worth of food each.

Each basket contains a Hormel ham, Mrs. Gerry’s mashed potatoes, Mrs. Gerry’s cranberry relish, Sara Lea dinner rolls, Sara Lee pumpkin pie, four cans of Green Giant vegetables, a dozen Christmas cookies, and a bag of Dole lettuce salad. Hepler said the biggest reason this is done each year is because the need in the community is so great, and Feed A Family is a community project to help combat that need.

“It’s such great program, it really is,” Hepler said. “It’s nice to live in a community that does more than just say ‘We’re a great community, we really help each other.’ This is all done by our community, and all the volunteers are all community leaders that just come out and volunteer their time.”

Since the program raised extra funding this year, organizers were able to take about 30 families from Blooming Prairie as well. Hepler said although organizers plan to keep the program local, he hopes they can continue to branch out to other communities each year, especially since many people from those communities come to Austin to shop and work.

“We hope that this is a program that will branch out and help all kinds of communities throughout the years,” he said.

Espe thanked the community for donating, volunteering and helping the program, and wished everyone in the community a Merry Christmas. Sponsors of the event include Hy-Vee, KAUS 99.9 Country, KAUS 1490 AM Voice, Hormel Foods Corp., Mrs. Gerry’s, Bernatello’s, Mower County American Dairy Association, Precision Signs, and Bimbo bakery.