PORT ANGELES — Christmas has come early to the Salvation Army.
Mars Hill Church in Seattle collected 21,500 pounds of food — nearly 11 tons — and delivered it to the Salvation Army in Port Angeles on Tuesday after hearing about the theft of up to a ton of food from the agency’s storage locker Oct. 12.
“It’s like a hundredfold,” said Maj. Katheleen Johnson.
“What we lost is like a little sliver of what we’re getting.”
The Seattle donation came in two trucks and took volunteers about two hours to unload and store.
“They just said, ‘This is for you,’” Johnson said.
A request for comment from the church was not answered Tuesday.
The Seattle church’s donation came on the heels of multiple donations from individuals and organizations on the North Olympic Peninsula, including a $3,000 check from First Federal last week.
In all, local donors have given $12,000, said Johnson on Tuesday.
Food banks in Port Townsend and Brinnon also donated 1,500 pounds of food, and people have been walking in with whatever they can afford to donate, Johnson said.
“God has been blessing us over and over and over since this theft thing,” she said Tuesday as volunteers unloaded the two truck-loads of food from Seattle.
The agency now can share the generosity in holiday food distribution and soup kitchen meals for the some 1,200 families it serves.
“It’s going to be wonderful,” Johnson said.
“I’m hoping it’s going to overflow Christmas and overflow the year,” she added, though she said she didn’t know how many people would request Christmas food boxes.
People can begin to sign up for Christmas food boxes and toys Nov. 7 at the Salvation Army at 206 S. Peabody St. in Port Angeles, Johnson said, adding that she didn’t yet know when the hours for registration would be.
Salvation Army workers had said about two-thirds of the canned and dry goods it had stockpiled for holiday food distributions and soup kitchen meals was taken in the burglary, in which a large padlock was cut from a storage trailer behind the main office.
They estimated then that 2,000 pounds of food was stolen. Later, both Salvation Army volunteers and the police said it wasn’t clear exactly how much food was missing.
Community members rallied after the theft to replace what had been taken, and at least one food drive is still in progress.
A joint food drive by North Olympic AmeriCorps and the Port Angeles School District began Monday and will continue through Nov. 4.
Nonperishable food can be delivered either to the Salvation Army or to neighborhood schools.
“The Salvation Army is specifically looking for holiday-related food items, such as instant mashed potatoes, canned stew and canned vegetables,” said Emily Kreidler, an Olympic Peninsula AmeriCorps volunteer and the organizer of the food drive.
Schools accepting food for the Salvation Army are Port Angeles High School, 304 E. Park Ave.; Lincoln High School, 924 W. Ninth St.; Stevens Middle School, 1139 W. 14th St.; Dry Creek Elementary School, 25 Rife Road; Franklin Elementary School, 2505 S. Washington St.; Hamilton Elementary School, 1822 W. Seventh St.; Jefferson Elementary School, 218 E. 12th St.; and Roosevelt Elementary School, 106 Monroe Road.
For more information on the food donation drive, phone 360-417-3697.
The Salvation Army is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays.
It offers a free hot lunch from noon to 1 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Its food bank is open from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursdays.
For more information or to donate, phone the Salvation Army at 360-452-7679.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.