On Saturday, St. Paul Lutheran Church will be a beehive of activity as the church passes out its annual Christmas with Dignity boxes to needy families.

In a few weeks, the Ironton City Welfare Mission and the Chesapeake Community Mission Outreach will follow suit and pass out boxes of food and/or toys to families in financial crisis in Lawrence County.

These three organizations alone will give assistance to a combined total of more than 1,800 families. Other churches and civic organizations will also help spread Christmas cheer.

But for many who seek help at Christmastime, need is something they know not as an annual event, but something they face all year long.

The City Welfare Mission routinely sets aside the week after Thanksgiving to take the names of people seeking boxes of Christmas food and toys. Some who need help begin calling in the fall, even before Thanksgiving.

But that one week, volunteers formally begin taking the names of families who seek help and by Friday afternoon, The Rev. Jeff Cremeans, director, said the list of families was “well over 600.”

Volunteers will spend the next few weeks purchasing the food and toys, much of which is donated by area businesses, civic groups and private individuals. Still other donors will give Cremeans and crew cash, which is always welcome. Those boxes will be handed out Dec. 23 at the mission.

For the people signed up for assistance at St. Paul, the Christmas with Dignity boxes will be ready Saturday. The Rev. David Ritchie said his church will pass out 650 Christmas with Dignity boxes. The event is a joint effort between St. Paul, All Saints Lutheran Church in central Ohio and other area entities that donate to the effort.

Each family will get anywhere from $75 to $100 in food, everything from frozen meats to canned goods. The church used to hand out toys but later switched to food boxes, food being the most essential of human needs.

The Chesapeake Community Mission Outreach, in the Chesapeake Community Center, is also busy right now collecting donations of cash and food that will be used to fill boxes to help 600 families.

“Last year we did 576,” Don Moore, director of the outreach, said. “But the situation seemed to worsen this year. We’ve expanded a little bit.”

The outreach will include bread, butter, fruits, meat, canned goods, sweet potatoes and even cereal in its boxes. Moore said he hopes to be able to include some toys in the baskets of families with children.

The outreach is supported by 18 Chesapeake area churches as well as individual donations. Moore said the schools often have food drives and this helps a lot. Like the City Mission and St. Paul, Moore relies on a small army of volunteers to take those 600 names and create a Christmas box for each one.

Ask any food pantry director, church or civic volunteer and they will tell you the need for help in Lawrence County doesn’t crop up at Christmastime and then vanish with the New Year.

Theresa Kelley, secretary for First United Methodist Church, said the food pantry at that church served 162 families in November.

“There are more people unemployed at the moment,” Kelley said. “We do have regulars but there is a definite increase in people who have fallen on hard times.”

Colleen Massey, who is the director of the UMC food pantry, agreed.

“You’d be surprised,” Massey said. “The things they tell you, no jobs, no food. It’s heartbreaking sometimes.”

Moore said his Chesapeake food pantry serves an average of 350 families a month and while the preconception of a needy family is one with children, Moore said probably a third of the people who visit his food pantry are the elderly who simply have a hard time making ends meet on their fixed income.

“These seem to be the ones hurting the worst,” he said. “There seems to be a lot of need here and it grows year after year.”

Becky Sharp, director of the food pantry at South Point Church of Christ, said her organization helps anywhere from 45-50 families a month. The pantry is open the last two Thursdays of the month.

“Some are regulars,” Sharp said. “But we get at least one new family every time we’re open. We get both the unemployed and the working poor.”

July and August were her biggest months this year and she wondered if maybe this had anything to do with schools being out and some kids not having that free weekday breakfast and lunch.

Her pantry is supported almost entirely by her church, although the church will accept donations from anyone but the government.

The schools have canned food drives from time to time to help, she said. Sharp said cash donations are used to purchase food from the Huntington, W.Va., Food Bank.

“We don’t turn anyone away,” Sharp said. The only thing her church requires is proof of residency and proof of income.

The Rome Ministerial Association collectively supports a food pantry housed at New Hope United Methodist Church. Director Cheryl Bradford said right now the pantry is serving approximately 25-40 families a month and that figure is actually down from earlier times when 65-70 families came through the door.

The RMA food pantry is open the second, fourth and fifth Saturdays from 10-11:30 a.m.

Massey said the pantry at her church is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and welcomes donations. She said the pantry can always use crackers, peanut butter and jelly, canned fruits and vegetables, canned soup and bread.

The pantry also gives out non-food staples such as laundry detergent and toilet paper. What is given out depends on what is donated. Those who pick up food may also get blankets and jackets. Massey said once the new food pantry is built, there will be more room for refrigerated items such as meat.

Bradford said this time of year she likes to be able to put essentials such as flour and sugar in those food baskets, as well as canned meats along with the canned fruits and vegetables. Like some of the other food pantries, Bradford said the RMA food pantry also hands out laundry detergent, soap and hygiene products.

Massey said she is thankful for those who donate.

“The Boy Scouts had a drive for us and they did well,” she said.

Bradford agreed about the importance of donations.

“We have some very dedicated givers who provide financial support month in and month out,” Bradford said. “And our donations are up right now.”

Massey said the food pantry at First UMC can always use cash. Cash donations often allow the pantry to buy in bulk and stretch dollars that way. At Thanksgiving, someone donated money and the pantry was able to purchase 29 turkeys.

The Ironton City Mission had its biggest year ever for Thanksgiving meals — 735 meals served. The mission aids in other ways throughout the year as well.

In 2010, the mission took food orders from 1,175 families.

The mission also helped pay utility bills for 169 families, provided gently used clothing to more than 1,700 families and used furniture to another 215 families. The mission also provided assistance to transients, people needing help with medical bills and prescriptions and even bus tickets for transients trying to get home who had gotten stuck in Ironton.

Seeing the need that exists all year round, the mission provided more than 10,000 meals throughout the year. Eight hundred thirty-two people stayed overnight in the city mission shelter.

Ritchie said 350 families show up each month for food boxes provided by Lutheran Social Services. But he suspects if the means were there to do it, as many as 900 families would seek the assistance.

“The need is so great. There is no income here, no jobs,” he said. So his church, like many other entities in Lawrence County, step in to fill the need of those who struggle, whatever the reason.

“We do this because we are called by Jesus Christ to do this,” Ritchie said. “We are to live by His example. We have to let people know Jesus loves them and because of Him we are reaching out with God’s love in this way.”

Bradford echoed that sentiment.

“We’re just trying to do what Jesus wanted us to do as far as helping,” Bradford said. “He said ‘if you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me.’”