OWENSVILLE — Operation Christmas food donations are out of the bags and boxes, stacked Monday with similar food products by about 20 volunteers.

Operation Christmas 2024 planners expect representatives of 168 area households will collect their food boxes Dec. 13 and 14. Distribution is scheduled from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Dec. 14.

Among those 168 households seeking assistance this year are 499 individuals including 378 adults and 121 children. Those children come from 63 families being assisted by the Helping Hands Outreach Center of Gasconade County, the all-volunteer agency which operates its food mission from the group’s building on Kosark Road.

Sorting efforts on Monday included 532 food items picked up Friday afternoon from Lakeside Book Company. The printing company’s employees also donated 58 winter coats and $600 in donations.

Local Boy Scouts from Troop 22 and Cub Scouts from Pack 22 created the start of the food collection with their door-to-door efforts in November. National Honor Society students and Owensville High School and Owensville Elementary School students also had large-scale donations which were collected late in November and deposited into the containers at HHOC.