In years past on Christmas Eve day, the dining room at the Elks Lodge in Rimforest was bustling with activity. Volunteers were setting the tables, decorating the tree, organizing the bags of gifts – all in preparation for the annual Christmas Day dinner put on by Operation Provider.

Last year, of course, the dinner could not be held because of the pandemic. And this year, Holland Lowe, the founder and executive director of Operation Provider, felt it just was not safe to hold the dinner as the guests would be so close together.

But that did not mean that Christmas did not come to the Rimforest food bank!

On Tuesday, Dec. 21, local firefighters showed up at Operation Provider in three fire trucks and an ambulance with toys they had collected.

“This is Christmas here at Operation Provider!” Lowe said. “Thank you to our firefighters who I’ve been working with for years and blessed our children with toys collected! Thank you to all of my volunteers who came out to serve so lovingly.”

Lowe extended a special thank you “to our God for his loving kindness shed upon this earth.”

Parents and grandparents came to choose gifts for their young ones. Holland said she gave them two gifts per child.

“I had families come with five or six children so they left with 10 or 12 gifts,” she noted.

“Today was a wonderful day,” Lowe added. “We served 100 families with food and gifts.”