POST FALLS — In the last 10 years, the Knights of Columbus Council 12560 from St. George’s Catholic Church skipped only one Saturday collecting donated food for the Post Falls Food Bank.

The Knights wanted to participate in a golf tournament, so they gave several months notice to Post Falls Food Bank Executive Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator Deborah Pumarejo.

“So it’s not like they were being flakey,” Pumarejo said with a laugh.

Reliable. Dedicated. Enthusiastic. Those words describe the Knights' essential contribution to the Food Bank’s operations, she said.

Every Saturday morning, the men, working in pairs, collect donated food from the Spokane Valley to the Idaho Panhandle in the food bank’s box truck.

From 2009 to 2019, Grand Knight Jim Burkhardt’s council collected more than 1.7 million pounds of food for hungry families in North Idaho.

“During the same period, our Knights have completed a total of 6,842 volunteer hours saving the food bank an estimated $80,295 in wage costs,” Burkhardt said.

The Food Bank employs a full-time staff member to collect donated food Monday through Friday. However, regulations require that some food be picked up on Saturdays. The Knights, led by longtime Post Falls resident and Knight Larry Noska, volunteered to provide the Saturday service.

It takes about 4 to 5 hours for a duo to collect donated food from the Evergreen Road Safeway in Spokane Valley, the Liberty Lake Yokes and Safeway, Post Falls Yokes, Costco in Coeur d’Alene, and the Little Caesars Pizza restaurant, also in Coeur d’Alene.

“It really helps out the food bank financially,” Noska said.

“Every single weekend they’re out doing it,” Pumarejo said. “They make us that much better. Larry is a delight. He’s very personable. He’s very organized. Sometimes it's like herding cats to get people to give up their weekend. But he communicates very well with us so we know who is out there.”

In addition to gathering donated food, Noska loves preparing meals. He cooks to bring people together, to feed them physically and spiritually. He believes in the power of a good meal.

Noska and his wife, Teri, have helped cook for the Friendship Kitchen at St. George’s, serving hot meals every Thursday from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

“Last week the kitchen made tomato soup from scratch,” Noska said, savoring the taste. “It was killer. You should have had it.”

Noska worked for many years fixing telephones for AT&T.

“I fixed stuff, now I still fix stuff,” he said. “Things broke and I worked to fix them. Teri never knew if I would be home on time or not.”

For a few years the Knights would call each other right before Saturday pick-ups to coordinate who would volunteer. Noska thought they could use a better system.

He took charge of scheduling pickups several years ago.

“There is a good camaraderie between all the knights and I think Larry helps foster that,” Pumarejo said.

“Each Knight does different things, different ministries,” Noska said. “I like to cook, so I cook at the church for funerals.”

In 2019 the Knights volunteered 477 hours and collected 124,655 pounds of food for the food bank.

“It’s been huge,” Pumarejo said. “We don’t have to pay overtime for someone to do our grocery rescue on Saturdays. That makes a big difference for an organization like ours.”

The Post Falls Food Bank programs reach over 3,000 people weekly and provide assistance to more than 60,000 people in Kootenai County every year.

“One of the goals of the Knights of Columbus is to help feed the hungry,” Burkhardt said. “Thanks to our partnership with the Food Bank, we have been able to accomplish that goal.”

Parishioners at St. George’s Catholic Church also donated 51,622 pounds of food in the last 10 years to the food bank, boosting the Knights’ efforts.