While the world outside roils and rages, we wish all our readers a serene Thanksgiving with family and friends at home around a full dinner table.

Of course, not everyone is blessed with either a home or the means to provide a Thanksgiving feast for their loved ones.

For that reason, we take a minute today to thank our local area food banks and the community members who work so hard to keep them well-stocked for those in need.

Flathead Food Bank provided 2,000 holiday baskets of food to those in need. Any way you slice it, that’s a ton of volunteer labor and generous giving by our communities. Other food banks followed suit. The Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry received much-needed donations of turkeys in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, enabling that food pantry to supply a holiday meal for 116 veterans and their families. In Whitefish, the North Valley Food Bank provided holiday food for 160 families.

Many nonprofit organizations have been collecting turkeys and other food items over the past several weeks to make sure every needy family in the Flathead has a meal to give thanks for today. Flathead folks no doubt will continue their giving ways through the Christmas season. As North Valley Food Bank Director SueAnn Grogan so aptly put it: “It’s just the giving season, right?”

Let the shopping begin!

Of course, once Thanksgiving dinner is over, it’s the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Many zealous shoppers will be beating a path to the front of their favorite box store today, tonight or tomorrow, but we also encourage the Flathead Valley to take advantage of Small Business Saturday.

This promotional concept is just a few years old, but has caught on. The idea is to patronize the local retailers who provide the bedrock to any community.

This year the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce is working with the Evergreen, Bigfork, Whitefish and Lakeside-Somers chambers to ensure a valleywide selection of businesses.