The holidays often bring out the best in people, and that was certainly the case recently for a family of Good Samaritan Ministries volunteers.

Cecil Cain, who began volunteering in 2015 with a group from Salt Creek Baptist Church, recently brought his son, Ed Cain, and grandson, Dillon Cain, to assist with the GSM Food Pantry.

“Not often do we have three generations at one time,” said Stacy Walker, Volunteer Coordinator at GSM. “We have grandparents that bring their grandchildren with them, but on this special occasion, since during the month of December we need extra helpers, his son and grandson were visiting at the time and he asked if they would come in and volunteer with him that day. That was a great experience for us to get to share in that.

“Most of our volunteers are older, retired people who have some time on their hands so they find this a great place to give back to their community. And we’re always excited to have our younger volunteers come in because volunteer service is something we can pass down to our children and grandchildren as a way to give back. I was just glad to see all generations at one time, seeing that passed down.”

Walker said the additional helping hands were particularly helpful.

“It was a real blessing for us because we did need extra help,” Walker said. “That happened to be a day we served 106 clients, giving food out, so we were all busy that day.”

Walker added that the Cain family was among the final volunteers to leave that day.

“They stayed here the entire time and enjoyed it and really expressed how much they received from getting the opportunity to serve,” Walker said. “They expressed, especially the younger two, how much they were impressed with the amount of food going out that day and the number of families they were helping to serve. They were happy to be a part of it and to see that need, especially during this time of the COVID pandemic where we’re learning new things every day of how to navigate and operate through that.”

GSM is in the midst of one of its busiest times of the year with the distribution of Christmas boxes taking place through Dec. 23.

“Especially this time of year when we’re giving out extra food in what we call our Christmas boxes, we always need anywhere from three to four extra volunteers to come in and help push baskets out to the clients’ cars,” Walker said. “We have older clients and with the Christmas boxes we have some heavier items. They’ll need help loading up the cars so they don’t have to lift, and it also allows us to get our baskets back into building a little more quickly so we can fill them back up again and be ready to go.”

Those interested in volunteering can call 325-643-2273 and ask for Stacy, who will set them up with a particular date that they can come in and volunteer.

“I’m always amazed at how when we have a need down here, whether it be for food or volunteers, most people would just say out of the blue it shows up, but we know it’s not out of the blue,” Walker said. “It’s a real blessing from God and He knows much more than we do and He knows the best way how to take care of it and He’s done a great job of taking care of this ministry. That’s one of the ways we’re able to serve the entire Brown County community.”