Thursday, November 12, 2026
By Lauren Salcedo
It’s a holiday memory that many of us hold dear – the joy on a child’s face when they wake up on Christmas morning and see those brightly wrapped presents under the tree, just waiting to be opened.
Yet for many Snohomish County residents, the holiday season brings additional hardship. Rising fuel and food prices, a challenging job market, and cuts to national support programs have left many families struggling to put food on the table. Toys under the tree become a luxury these families cannot afford.
Luckily, even during these difficult times, several hard-working nonprofits and faith-based organizations are trying to fill the gaps and bring Christmas joy to children and their families.
One such holiday giving organization is the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots, a national public charity organization with more than 850 satellite programs, including one in Everett.
“Our mission is to deliver symbols of hope to underserved and underprivileged communities in need,” said area coordinator Mary Butler. “The extension of that hope comes from the men and women who have served our country and decided that this is how they choose to continue their service on domestic soil. It is an honor and a privilege and a responsibility for us to continue that service here.”
The long-standing program collects new, unwrapped toys to distribute to economically disadvantaged children during the holidays and beyond.
“Last year we served more than 68,000 children,” said Butler, who has been the local Toys for Tots area coordinator for 16 years. She explained that local families can qualify for the program in two ways.
One way is to apply online starting Oct. 1 every year. Families must meet income requirements; however, if they already qualify for food stamps and medical, they also qualify for Toys for Tots.
“If you qualify for those programs, you are either working-class poor or under the poverty level, so you qualify for our assistance,” Butler said. She noted that the online application does require pay stubs, birth certificates, and legal guardianship paperwork to prevent fraud, though fraud is rare.
Another way that families can qualify for assistance is through community organizations – such as domestic violence shelters and food banks – that determine their own qualifications and reach out on behalf of the families with a list of the children, their ages and genders, and their desired toys.
Bright City Church at 2730 Oakes Ave. in Everett hosts the Toys for Tots warehouse at no cost to the organization, from Nov. 30-Dec. 21, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Individual families come through the doors to receive toys and books for their children.
For those interested in supporting the Toys for Tots mission, several ways to get involved are available.
One way is for businesses to volunteer as donation locations or “drop sites.” About 300 local businesses serve as Toys for Tots drop sites. To qualify, businesses must apply online and sign a document declaring that all donations are the property of Toys for Tots. Businesses must complete this application every year.
Those who would like to donate can bring new, unwrapped toys to the donation locations listed on the Toys for Tots website or donate money online. Those funds go directly to purchasing toys for children in Snohomish County.
Like other charity organizations, Toys for Tots can always use more volunteers.
“During our peak times, we will have maybe 45 volunteers, when we probably need 60.” To volunteer, visit the sign-up page on the website. Last year, 103 volunteered.
One Snohomish County family has volunteered for Toys for Tots for more than a decade. In 2010, Fredy and Kirstin Esquivel were a young family starting out, with two young kids at home, and found themselves struggling. Fredy, a sergeant in the Marine Corps, had recently returned from Afghanistan, while Kirstin worked full-time and attended San Diego State University.
“We were a young family experiencing financial hardship and just trying to make Christmas happen, and at the time we just didn’t know how we were going to make it happen,” Fredy said. One of his fellow Marines reached out to him and told him they could sign up for Toys for Tots. “We showed up, and they said, ‘You can have two big items and one small item per kid.’ Unbeknownst to us, these toys were not inexpensive; they were expensive gifts, and they let us grab a bike as well. It was just a great experience.”
Not only had the family been struggling financially, but Fredy was also recovering from being seriously injured in combat only a few months before. In August 2010, while on a route clearance mission, an improvised explosive device detonated directly beneath him. He suffered spinal compression and a traumatic brain injury that had lasting physical and mental effects. He was later awarded a Purple Heart.
In 2012, after they welcomed another child, someone “adopted” their family through the Toys for Tots program and left two huge boxes of gifts on their doorstep. “They individually wrapped each gift for each of our children, and they also gave us gift cards for the local grocery store.”
In 2015, the family moved from California to Lake Stevens. Fredy is a firefighter for the Port of Seattle, and Kristin stays home with their two youngest children and runs her own business.
“We moved up here so I could attend the University of Washington, and one of the first things I did was seek out a local Toys for Tots, and that’s how we met Mary and King Butler,” Fredy said. “We have been volunteering here for 11 years. Now our younger kids are 14 and 11, and they have also been volunteering. For me, being a part of a community means giving to your community. There are a lot of people in need, and sometimes you don’t know who it is; it can be your neighbor. It’s not an organization that has high overhead.”
Since the family volunteers each year, they have seen firsthand how the need has grown.
“There are a lot of great companies that help donate and really put forth an effort to help the community, but especially now there are so many more people in need that it is hard to keep up with demand,” Kirstin said. “I’m really glad it exists because they helped us and now they have helped us teach our kids to give back.”
Fredy said he wished he could go back and find the people who donated to them all those years ago and tell them they made a difference.
“They don’t know the fire that they lit inside Kirstin and I to give back,” he said. “I don’t know who those people are, but if I could, I would want to say ‘thank you’ because you not only helped us, but you helped a lot of families in need.”
Another way to give during the holiday season is to reach out to churches and faith-based organizations, many of which also partner with local food banks to serve community members struggling with food insecurity.
Edmonds United Methodist Church has several missions that support the community, and a congregation highly focused on giving back. In 2025, the church awarded 25 organizations a total of $28,000.
“We support individuals and as a community because we know that, especially these past few years when there are active attacks on the safety net and active threats to marginalized groups by national authorities, by rhetoric, and by groups locally, it’s only through generosity that we fill those gaps,” said the Rev. Jeremy Smith.
In the holiday season, the church hosts a few events that go back into the community – the Holiday Bazaar and the Toy Shop. For the latter, people can donate new or very gently used toys, which parents in need then choose for their children.
“The Toy Shop was an Edmonds UMC program, a very large one, until the pandemic,” Smith said. “Then when the pandemic hit, we transferred it to the food bank, which at that point had become independent from Edmonds UMC.” The pandemic put the Toy Shop at risk, but according to Smith, the food bank had the “logistics and the people to be able to really get toys into the hands of kids.”
The Edmonds Food Bank also began as a part of Edmonds UMC in the 1980s, but has since become an independent nonprofit operating out of the church’s lower level. It provides food to families in need year-round, and the Toy Shop provides gifts for children who would otherwise go without during Christmas. Last year, the Toy Shop provided toys to 950 families. But the need for support has only increased.
More than 3,500 households came to the food bank at least once, said Casey Davis, the food bank’s executive director and CEO. “Donations always increase around the harvest season and around the holiday season, but so do requests for support.”
Davis said that people often struggle more in the winter, when bills are higher, the weather is colder, and healthy foods are more expensive or difficult to find.
“People turn to food banks for their nutritional needs because they can’t afford the basic needs at the grocery store. Things like fresh fruits, produce, dairy, and meats are always in high demand and even higher during the holiday season.”
The Edmonds Food Bank and the Toy Shop always need more volunteers. Those interested can connect on their website at edmondsfoodbank.org. Of particular need is translators. Ukrainian, Spanish, Farsi, Korean, and Chinese translators are always welcome.
While they don’t have a firm number of families that will request support from the Toy Shop, they know it could be up to 1,600, based on how many children visit the food bank each week. To apply, go to tinyurl.com/5yf67bvn.
They request new or very gently used toys for younger kids, but for kids 10 and up, they give out $50 gift cards to stores like Fred Meyer or Target because there aren’t many affordable toys for this age group. The Toy Shop always welcomes the donation of these gift cards, as well as financial donations that allow the organization to fill gaps – if it runs out of toys for a certain age group, they go out and buy more rather than letting families walk away with nothing. They also welcome donations of new and very gently used age-appropriate books for children of all ages, but especially those 10 and up.
“We provide a book to every child,” said Jennifer Cole Wilson, development specialist for the food bank. “If there are donors that want to give more at that level, they can.”
While these many different donations will make a difference in the lives of children and families in our area, Davis did not want the organization to be seen as heroes.
“We invite the parents or legal guardians to come in and shop for their children, so the presents don’t look like they are coming from us, because the parent or the guardian or the family member should be the hero of the story. Children should see the family members as the heroes. That allows them to grow up and understand that they can be heroes within their own community.”
Although the holidays can be joyful, many neighbors struggle to meet their families’ needs during this time. Read the accompanying sidebar to see how you can get involved.
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