For about a quarter of a century, Harriet and Tom Dillonn have driven for Lake City Center Meals on Wheels. 

Harriet started helping the nonprofit, then about a year later Tom joined. Now, they spend Fridays helping the community maintaining one of 17 routes keeping seniors fed in Kootenai County.  

“We check on ‘em, talk to ‘em, get to know them a little bit. Make sure they get fed,” Tom said. 

The couple used to make deliveries three days a week, but now they focus on just covering one day a week. 

The impact goes beyond just the social interactions for a stop on the route. 

For some seniors without a support network, the Dillons are all they have. 

“A lot of these people don’t eat unless we deliver the meals to them,” Tom said. 

Lake City Center is one of about 112 North Idaho nonprofits participating in Idaho Gives this year. 

Idaho Gives highlights programming rural communities fund year-round to keep neighbors safe, fed and independent and begins Sunday through May 7. 

Lake City Center Executive Director Nancy Phillips said the Meals on Wheels program and other senior programming revolve around volunteers. 

“It takes a lot of bodies,” Phillips said. 

The in-person congregate meals rack up about 200-220 volunteer hours each month and Meals on Wheels volunteer hours come to about 190-200 a month. 

“No senior should ever go hungry and they definitely should never feel they’ve been forgotten,” Phillips said. 

Lake City Center's Meals on Wheels coordinates distribution to about 5,000 meals a month for seniors in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Huetter, Hauser and Dalton Gardens on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 

All drivers are volunteers and some volunteers help package the food, others do paperwork. 

“We provide meals, the social connection and the supportive services so that they can remain independent as long as possible while engaging with others in the community,” Phillips said. 

Community partners like the 3rd Avenue Marketplace and area churches help Lake City Center fill a gap when funding doesn’t fully meet a community need among area seniors. 

Phillips said the community has been quick to answer the call by keeping seniors fed, during unplanned needs such as during the government shutdown to support the Meals on Wheels Spring Gala on Saturday. 

“It's a lot of outside help that’s needed. Thankfully, we have a community that likes to give,” Phillips said. 

Residents find a rural resource in Panhandle Special Needs   

Panhandle Special Needs supports clients with disability services in three North Idaho counties: Bonner and Boundary counties and part of Kootenai County. 

“It's kind of the no-man's land It's a lot of territory and we go as far as Athol,” Executive Director Trinity Nicholson said. 

It all comes down to what the nonprofit can support and no matter what, they scale the resources they do have to keep going, in spite of short staffing or tight budgets. 

“We do life skills training, shopping, cooking, housekeeping, laundry,” Nicholson said. “We keep a close eye on the bottom line because we just have to.” 

Panhandle Special Needs serves about 200 people per year teaching life skills, providing adult day health and offering different types of employment and training. 

“Folks also depend on us for essential services and to go grocery shopping, to cook their meals. We can’t just not show up,” Nicholson said. “We just find a way, we have to find our way.”  

About 40 names currently fill an agency waitlist for Panhandle Special Needs. 

“We've had a waitlist for at least 10 years, our program has really been growing,” Nicholson said. “It's big part of why we participate in Idaho Gives, we’re trying to build a new building.” 

One of the biggest needs the nonprofit serves is providing tools and skills so that learning and added skill sets continue after high school, Nicholson said.  

Panhandle Special Needs represents a safe place to go to, but Nicholson said they could fully meet the demand for rural disability services for everyone who wants them in the area. 

“It hurts our hearts. For our clients, they’re waiting for their life to begin,” Nicholson said. 

The Sandpoint building lease for Panhandle Special Needs has about seven years left on their contract, but the knowledge that their time in their current space is numbered, denotations through Idaho Gives offers another opportunity to put their name out there and work towards their goal. 

Plants from the Greenhouse through Panhandle Special Needs open for sale beginning May 5 and community members wanting to support the agency can also buy hanging baskets during the May 7 restaurant takeover of Smokesmith Bar-B-Que.  

For more information, visit: www.idahogives.org/

https://www.lakecitycenter.org  

https://panhandlespecialneeds.org/  

    Ace Cardboard recycling crew through Panhandle Special Needs pose with employees from Spuds Waterfront Grill (two employees back left) after picking up materials to recycle. Pictured: Steven T., Seth N., Mike W., Andy K. (PSNI employee), Justin B. (PSNI employee), kneeling: Travis N.
  

    Meals are prepped for Lake City Center's Meals on Wheels deliveries for 17 routes to cover six cities in Kootenai County.