Helena Group Assembles Winter Care Packages to Aid Residents
A Helena advocacy group, Waking Giant, spent early December assembling winter care packages to help people facing cold weather and growing food insecurity. The effort highlights gaps in local shelter coordination and comes as county and city agencies work on an emergency shelter plan that could shape how those supplies reach community members.
On Dec. 8, members of Waking Giant in Helena completed a batch of winter care packages stocked with wool socks, hand warmers, blankets and personal hygiene items to distribute as temperatures drop. The supplies were purchased over the past month through the volunteer group, which partners with the Tri-County Community Organizations Active in Disaster, COAD. The work reflects rising concern about food and income supports after the recent threat to SNAP benefits, a factor that Waking Giant members say helped spur action.
Logan Swanson, a member of Waking Giant, said, "It was really the threat to the SNAP benefits that made everybody kind of realize we had to do something." Swanson said the original goal was to make packages available at shelters and other community support locations around the city. Those distribution details remain under discussion as COAD continues to work on the Helena Emergency Shelter Plan, a collaborative effort among the county, city and local agencies to coordinate shelter options during severe weather.
Wheeler said, "We are continuing to work with partner agencies and faith based orgs." Until those pathways are finalized, Waking Giant members plan to hold onto the care packages and adjust delivery once a distribution system is in place. Swanson added, "Whatever format we end up distributing through, [the packages] will still go to people who need it." He also warned that the scale of local need may be larger than many residents recognize, saying, "I think we all underestimate the amount of need in our city at the moment."
Beyond emergency warmth and hygiene supplies, each package includes a map of Helena’s Little Free Pantries to point recipients toward community sustained access to food and basic items. Waking Giant does not have nonprofit status and does not solicit donations, and members encourage support for existing Helena nonprofit organizations as the most reliable way to help people who are unhoused or food insecure.
Public updates accompanying the effort note other city level actions and meetings including city manager finalist interviews and town halls scheduled for Dec. 8 and 9, city staff recommendations on trailhead parking lot closures, tentative changes to the city’s affordable housing trust, an Open Lands Major Projects listening session scheduled for Dec. 18, and the Lewis and Clark Library’s East Helena feasibility work toward a new branch estimated at six million dollars. As winter deepens in Lewis and Clark County, the Waking Giant effort underscores ongoing gaps in shelter coordination, the intersection of food policy with housing stability, and the need for coordinated community and policy responses to keep residents safe.
