“Oh goody Mommy, we can have biscuits and gravy,” a young boy said after he and his mother received a box of free groceries.

It was a remark a volunteer had heard after taking a box of food to a family, a comment she passed on to Patty Paulsen, American Legion Auxiliary president. 

Since February the auxiliary has partnered with Albertsons through its Grocery Rescue Program. They have been able to help roughly 6,000 people, she said, thanks to daily grocery pickups that range between 200 and 800 pounds. 

“Through our in-store food donation program, we donate edible fresh and packaged food products that are close to the ‘Use By’ date to local food banks,” Albertsons says on its website. “We are a Feeding America Visionary Partner, and in 2022 donated more than 80 million pounds of food from our stores to local Feeding America food recovery organizations.”

Not all the food picked up is from Powell’s Albertsons; some of the items are from different stores or from companies not in Powell, volunteer Dorothy Gibson said. 

Paulsen said that in February the auxiliary was approached by Joe Wesson, manager of Powell’s Albertsons, with the opportunity to receive daily donations from the store as well as $3,000 the auxiliary has set aside for holiday baskets. 

The auxiliary also offers  a commodities distribution funded by the USDA that is income based, but Paulsen said the grocery rescue is for people in need regardless of income.

“We’ve helped homeless people, or maybe their refrigerator went out, freezer went out or whatever,” Paulsen said. “We just help supplement things [for] veterans in need, the elderly, whoever needs help.”

Food pickups for those in need are on Tuesdays from 5-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Each person may pick up food once a week.

Typically, the food is all taken at the end of each pickup day but what is not used is taken to seniors and adults with disabilities.

Once a month, the groceries collected from Albertsons that day are used in the commodities distribution, Paulsen said. 

“We just really want to make sure that no kids are going hungry, that’s [something] that the American Legion is doing with the auxiliary, making sure kids do not go without because they are our future, and we need to be taking care of them,” Paulsen said.