ARLINGTON — When Tori Anderson was in her junior and senior years at Arlington High School, she volunteered regularly at the Arlington Community Food Bank.

She’s now a freshman at Eastern Washington University, but when the food bank began its Christmas dinner basket distribution Dec. 18, Anderson was on her winter break, so she swung by the food bank to help out again.

“I had some extra time on my hands,” Anderson said. “Besides, I had a good experience volunteering here before, so I wanted to come back for more.”

Anderson helped serve a community whose families in need are changing, said Jerrie Inman, who’s on the food bank’s board.

“We’re giving out more baskets to younger, smaller families,” said Inman, who reported that 325 families signed up for Christmas baskets this year.

Inman listed the food bank’s clients for 2015 as including 156 infants aged 2 and younger, 2,000-plus children aged 3-18, and its largest demographic, adults aged 19-54, numbering 2,654. With seniors aged 65 and older adding up to 1,587, that comes out to around 6,400 clients, of which the food bank serves about 2,000 on a monthly basis.

“It’s hard when the families are smaller, because you can’t split up individual cans of food,” Inman said. “Everett has so many food banks that it can actually divvy up its clients’ demographics to each one.”

Inman noted that Arlington families’ needs often have subtle shadings.

“In terms of homeless families, we’re seeing fewer who are living under bridges and more who are sleeping on other people’s couches,” Inman said. “We’re also differentiating between how we serve younger people versus seniors. Our seniors love to cook, so while most of our other clients prefer meals that are pre-made to an extent, our seniors appreciate having flour, sugar and baking mix. We gear our services to our clientele.”

Inman acknowledged that the food bank was especially fortunate in the donations it received this year, between the annual “Santa Run” generating 7,600 pounds of food and the Safeway Northwest Harvest gaining the Smokey Point Safeway as a partner, to supply more than 1,000 shopping bags full of food, in addition to the Arlington Safeway’s 900 bags.

Looking to next year, Inman credited fellow food bank board member Amy Butchart with stepping up to write grant applications to fund the purchase of a van, which would aid programs such as its “Meals ’Til Monday” for hungry students.