As part of the Press Christmas for All campaign in 2019, we shared with readers stories of people applying for help.

Throughout 2020, The Press will follow up on some of those stories and see how donors’ generosity has made a difference in people’s lives.

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A little more than a year ago, Elisa Walker and her two young children became homeless.

“We had to live in our van for a few days,” she recalled.

Family Promise of North Idaho provided Walker and her kids with a place to stay — a different local church each week.

“I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Family Promise,” Walker said.

Though they had a roof over their heads, this period of homelessness was tough on the kids, both of whom have developmental disabilities that require special care and attention.

To support her family, Walker works as a newspaper carrier. She delivers newspapers out of the same van that she and her children had to live in temporarily.

The family relied on food banks to help them get by. That was where Walker met Joyce Dexter, director of Lake City Community Food Bank.

“It was just overwhelming what this gal has gone through to try to pull herself back up,” Dexter said. “She was doing everything she could to provide for her family and she was just stuck.”

The Lake City Community Food Bank does things a little differently than other food banks. The goal, Dexter said, is not merely to sustain the people who need assistance, but to help them become self-sufficient.

“Life happens and sometimes it just pulls the rug out from under us,” she said. “We’re going to walk with you. We’re going to help you not need us.”

To that end, the food bank has life and finance coaches, as well as job coaches who help individuals with their resumes, interview skills and job searches.

“We want to give people the tools to succeed,” Dexter said.

During the winter, however, Walker had a need that the food bank wasn’t equipped to help with. She couldn’t afford new tires for her van and worried about her ability to do her job safely in harsh weather.

The food bank couldn’t afford tires. But Dexter could connect Walker with another resource — Press Christmas for All.

When Walker came to the food bank to fill out a Press Christmas for All application, Dexter said she wasn’t in high spirits.

“You could tell she was down,” Dexter said. “Life had been hard.”

But life got easier when money donated by the community paid for tires for Walker’s van. Not only did this make it possible for Walker to continue her paper route through the winter, it made her family safer.

“I don’t have to worry about going out and finding a flat tire in the morning,” she said. “I don’t just do the paper route — I can go other places.”

When she returned to the food bank for the first time after receiving the much-needed tires, Dexter said Walker’s whole demeanor had changed. It was as if a weight had been lifted.

“I honestly did not recognize her,” Dexter said. “She just felt so good about herself.”

Walker and her children are no longer homeless, but the transition has been challenging. Many of their belongings had to be sold when they moved into their own place. The family sleeps together in one room.

“Other than that, I’m doing OK,” she said. “I feel very equipped to take care of the kids.”

Planning for the future is tough when each day is a struggle.

“It just happened so fast,” Walker said. “One minute, you’re living life, and the next minute, you’re out on the street. You have to humble yourself and realize that you can’t do it by yourself.”

With support from local resources like Family Promise of North Idaho, the Lake City Community Food Bank and Press Christmas for All, and through her own sense of determination, Walker is getting back on her feet.

She said her experiences have changed her as a person.

“You don’t know your own strength until you go through something like this,” she said.

Press Christmas for All is managed by The Hagadone Corp., with great assistance from CharityReimagined.Org. It is a legally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit, run entirely by volunteers.