Now in its 29th season of holiday helpfulness, the Christmas Food Basket program of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Benevolent Association delivered an extra helping of food Thursday morning to families across Dallas County, with members of the Perry Volunteer Fire Department delivering 46 baskets in the north end of the county.
The program has for many years been largely supported by donations from Heather Bruce at Osmundson Manufacturing in Perry and other local businesses.
From their staging grounds at the Dallas County Extension offices on the fairgrounds in Adel, volunteers from the sheriff’s office, PVFD and various public safety agencies from cities around Dallas County loaded their vehicles and fanned out to area towns and farm houses, bringing meat and potatoes, bread and milk and eggs, blankets and toys “and various other foods and sundries” to county families, according to the Sheriff’s Benevolent Association.
The origins of the sheriff’s holiday benevolence date unofficially to 1990, with the delivery of small, private gifts, and the program slowly grew. As few as eight or 10 baskets were delivered countywide in the early years, according to Perry Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Grason Hill, a 30-year veteran Perry firefighter.
This year’s delivery team in northern Dallas County was led by Hill, who was assisted by Perry Volunteer Fire Department members Dave Barkley, Ben Brown, Andrea Brownlee, Jennifer Lauer, Kim Laws and Maren Meusburger with 3-month-old Calvin.
The baskets were delivered baskets to families in Perry, Bouton, Dawson, Granger, Minburn and Woodward, Hill said.
