Afton's Holiday Calendar Has a Second Job: Stocking Star Valley's Food Pantries

Between November 20 and December 15, Afton hosts a Christmas tree festival, a craft bazaar, a community Thanksgiving dinner, a parade, and the Angel Tree and food drive run by the Bank of Star Valley. Most of these events send money or food to the same few places. Taken together, they are how the valley's food pantries fill their shelves before the winter months, which the Afton Food Pantry's director describes as its hardest.

In 2026 that funding starts sooner. The Star Valley Festival of Trees has moved from early December to the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Ten Years In, the Pantry's Busiest Season Is Still Winter

The Afton Food Pantry opened on September 1, 2016. The Star Valley Independent's 10-year profile says it started with a borrowed building, $1,000 in seed money from the town and 102 cans of green beans. Since then it has helped 48,114 people in 16,843 households.

Its mix of clients has changed. According to the same profile, the pantry served mostly senior citizens at first, but households with children have been its largest group since last November. Founder Sierra Mitchell links that shift to rising costs and the pressures on working parents.

Today the pantry stocks shelf-stable, frozen and fresh food. Its work falls into three programs: weekly distribution, the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and food rescue, which collects usable items from Broulim's that would otherwise be thrown out. The pantry also has a partnership with Food Bank of Wyoming, and that partnership explains why the biggest holiday fundraiser asks for dollars rather than cans.

Why the Festival of Trees Asks for Money

The Star Valley Festival of Trees funds three food banks, in Afton, Thayne and Alpine. After the 2024 festival, the Star Valley Independent reported that the event raised $24,638.01 from sponsorships, tree and gingerbread house auctions, and experience and product sales. Each food bank got a check for $8,212.67.

The 2024 committee president, Bethany Packard, told the paper why the festival works this way. "When those funds are used to buy food through the state food bank system, each dollar, this year, is multiplied eight times," she said. "So, each pantry could have up to $65,700.00 of buying power. This is why we moved away from asking for actual food product to a monetary donation event."

Mitchell, speaking in the same article, linked the timing to the pantry's calendar: "This donation helps carry us through the hardest months at the Pantry."

The 2025 festival raised more. The organizers' 2026 event listing says it brought in more than $30,000, so each of the three food banks received over $10,000. If Packard's eight-to-one figure still holds, that is a large amount of buying power for pantries this size.

The 2026 Festival Moves Up to November 20 and 21

The festival has changed venues and dates every year. In 2024 it ran November 29 and 30 at Gather in Afton. In 2025 it moved to the south extension building at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds on December 5 and 6, with Patricia Naumoff as committee chair.

This year the organizers list Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21 at the Afton Civic Center, open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. both days, with free entry. The listing promises decorated trees, a gingerbread house contest, live music, visits with Santa, a Christmas Café and bake sale, raffles, and holiday crafts. Organizers are still recruiting sponsors, tree decorators and donors, raffle donors, gingerbread entrants, and volunteers for setup, the event and cleanup. They say registration details will be added to the listing as they are set. The Star Valley Independent's community calendar also lists the festival for November 20.

With the festival moved earlier, the valley's biggest food-bank fundraiser now comes before Thanksgiving week rather than after it. Here is the full run of dates, using the 2026 calendar entries:

The Smaller Events Feed the Same Pantries

On the morning after the festival opens, the Holiday Craft Bazaar runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on November 21. When the Star Valley Independent previewed the 2025 bazaar, sisters Tanya DeJournett and Nicole DeJournett had taken it over and were holding it at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds. It had nearly 45 vendors and proceeds went to local people in need. Youth soccer clubs collected the $1 admission donation, and the Muckin' Mavericks 4-H club sold lunch to raise money.

Five days later, the Community Thanksgiving Dinner is set for noon to 2 p.m. on November 26. Last year Michelle and Mark Van Slyke hosted it at Swift Creek High School, 222 E 4th Street. The Afton Food Pantry, local church congregations and volunteers helped make it happen, and the Star Valley Independent's 2025 story said everyone was welcome, including travelers and people who wanted company, even if they only came for pie.

The Bank of Star Valley's two programs end the season. Last year the Angel Tree let Star Valley families with children under 18 apply at any branch. Donors could adopt an angel at a branch or online, give general gifts or money, and drop wrapped gifts at a branch labeled with the angel's number, according to the Star Valley Independent. In 2024, the Feed the Angels drive collected canned goods at the Bank of Star Valley and Broulim's in Afton and Thayne and at the bank in Alpine. Any branch took money, and the bank matched donations up to $2,000 that year. This year the Angel Tree application deadline is November 30, and the food drive with Silver Star is December 15.

Main Street and the Ford Fill the Evenings

Some events on the calendar don't raise money. They are the reason people are out in town during these weeks. The Afton Main Street Alliance hosts the Parade of Lights on Main Street on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is November 28 this year. The Star Valley Independent's calendar lists it from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. In a December 2025 radio interview with the paper, Town Administrator Violet Sanderson said the last parade included a float competition and ended with the lighting of the historic arch. Wild Wyoming Outfitters won first place, Avail second and Central Star Valley Farms third.

Salt River Community Theater has a show on either side of Thanksgiving. Finding Neverland, its 2026 fall musical, tells how J. M. Barrie came to write Peter Pan, and Jaclyn Lechner is back as director. The Star Valley Independent announced performances November 12 to 14, 16, 19 to 21, and 23, all at 7 p.m. The Salt River Arts Society listing places it at 432 S Washington St. Adult tickets are $18 and student tickets $12, each with a small service fee.

Michael McLean's The Forgotten Carols then plays December 3, 4, 5 and 7 at 7 p.m. General admission is $10, according to Salt River Arts. Last December the paper described it as a redemption story in which Nativity characters help a nurse find hope again, staged at the Ford Theatre.

Thursdays at 710 N. Washington Street

The holiday events raise most of the money, but the pantry runs on weekly volunteers. The Afton Food Pantry is at 710 N. Washington St. It offers free food to anyone in need every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. Qualifying households can use TEFAP on the first Tuesday of each month from 5 to 6 p.m., according to the Wyoming Hunger Initiative's Lincoln County page. The pantry's website takes food and cash donations at any time. Its mailing address is P.O. Box 1367, Afton, WY 83110, and it links to an online sign-up for Thursday-night volunteer shifts.

Many of those shifts are already covered by students. Star Valley High School teacher Aaron Lancaster takes students by bus to the pantry on Tuesdays, and Mitchell said about 138 seniors filled this school year's volunteer schedule in under 10 minutes. The Star Valley High School football team is among the pantry's most dependable volunteer groups.

The pantry's space has a limit. Its stock is stored in a basement, and volunteers carry thousands of cans up and down 13 stairs. The pantry is working toward a larger, one-level building near Star Valley High School, closer to the students it depends on. Thousands of volunteer signatures cover a basement wall. "Somebody gave one can or one hour, and all of the ones add up to be many," Mitchell told the Star Valley Independent.

If you're decorating a tree for the Civic Center, signing up for an Angel Tree tag, or just want to know who to call about volunteering this winter, the team at Speakman Realty Group is glad to connect you with the people behind these events. Contact us anytime.