With the holidays in full swing, one thing remains on many people’s minds; food. Feasting on a large dinner on the fourth Thursday of November is tradition. But, for many people, getting enough food to feed their families is still a struggle.

Donations of food are in high demand during the winter months. That’s where the Jerry Woods Holiday Engine comes in.

The program is not, by any means, the only opportunity for people to donate holiday food to those in need, but it is probably one of the most special.

Jerry Woods started the program, then named just “Holiday Engine,” in 2008 after it went on hiatus for a year when his grandchildren were still quite young. They are now in their teenage years and still help with the program, despite their grandfather passing away in 2010.

Jerry passed away a little over a year after he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. But, he was still able to experience, for one season, what he had worked so hard to bring back.

The program runs for three weekends in December. Two Maple Valley fire engines drive through various neighborhoods in town and collect food and monetary donations for the Maple Valley Food Bank. They also collect donations at two local grocery stores, Wal-Mart (Covington) and Grocery Outlet (Maple Valley), throughout the month of December.

Ray Orme, Jerry’s best friend, said Jerry was upset when he found out the program was ending in 2008.

“He calls me and says, ‘Ray, they’re stopping the fire engine,’” Ray recalled. He said Jerry went to the fire marshal and they explained that they didn’t have the funds to support it. In 2007, the fire district levy failed which caused the fire department to cut the program from its budget.

“(Jerry) said, ‘They’ll do it if we pay for the diesel,’” Ray said of their conversation.

The pair, who considered themselves siblings as opposed to friends, even to the point of Jerry listing Ray as his brother while he was in the hospital, agreed to split the cost of the fuel.

Since then, the program has grown significantly. Before Jerry resurrected the program, it was simply a way to bring the citizens of Maple Valley a little holiday cheer, with a visit from Santa Claus. The Woods family added the food drive portion and started to get local groups involved.

Girl and boy scout troops, youth groups, and sports teams are helping with the Holiday Engine this year. The youngsters will put an empty bag on every doorstep in all the neighborhoods the engines will be visiting that week.

Then, when the night comes around to visit the neighborhoods, the kids will collect the bags that have been filled.

Santa’s helpers on the fire engines will also be able to take money donations using credit and debit cards, a new feature this year.

In addition, there will be GPS tracking on both fire engines so people can check the program’s website and see exactly where they are and when the train will arrive in their neighborhood.

Last year the program brought in over 14,000 pounds of food and over $3,000 in cash donations for the food bank just from the fire engine routes. An additional $4,500 and 3,600 pounds of food was donated through their stands at the grocery stores. That total is nearly a 900 percent increase from their 2009 total for food donations and over 1,000 percent increase in their cash donations from 2009.

Lila Henderson, executive director of the food bank, says the program is one of their largest in terms of donations.

“It makes a big impact on us,” she said.

The food bank distributes about 80,000 pounds of food, each month, for November and December. This food drive contributes more than 10 percent of the food donations for those two months.

Ray expects this year to produce even bigger results.

“It’s just growing exponentially,” he said.

But, it does take a big chunk of the community to pull it off.

Ray said last year over 1,000 people helped with the planning and execution of the food drive.

“It’s really a community event,” he said. “That’s what I like about it.”

And it’s not just the people that need food that the program helps. In a different way, the people that run the program benefit, too.

“All of December is filled with teaching my kids how to give back like my dad (taught us),” said Jerry’s daughter, Karen Thomas.

Everyone close to him agreed that Jerry loved serving his community.

“He was always first to volunteer if anyone needed anything,” Karen said.

In 2009, before he passed, the program was named after him by the Maple Valley City Council. When Jerry lost his battle with ALS, his family and friends didn’t question whether to continue the Holiday Engine program.

Ray said he knew he needed to carry on with it because, “he made me promise.”

The Jerry Woods Holiday Engine can be found at www.holidayengine.org.