Between its two weekend distributions, the West End Food Pantry in Kunkletown provides food for about 1,500 people monthly.

That estimate comes from its director, Karena Thek, who helped open it just four years ago around this time of year.

“It’s a little bigger than I anticipated,” she said of the pantry, whose 10-mile radius touches both Carbon and Monroe counties. Having a large client base makes the pantry’s distribution days — held on the first and third Saturday of each month — quite busy. At least that was the case last weekend.

But as dozens of people walked through the pantry’s halls Saturday, walking through rooms stocked with canned foods, bread, turkeys and other essentials, pantry volunteers had a second event to run: the Secret Santa Shop.

Opened just once a year, the pantry’s Secret Santa Shop is just for kids who want to pick up Christmas gifts for their caregivers. There was a lot to choose from; the store’s tables were full with lotions, candles, mugs, calendars and other trinkets.

“Kids really, really enjoy giving when given the opportunity to give,” Thek said. “They get more excited about picking a gift for their caregiver than they do about picking a gift for themselves.”

This year, the Secret Santa Shop was run almost entirely by a group of students from Cornerstone Community Church Youth Group, who helped kids pick and wrap their gifts.

“There’s a lot of needs in our community,” Pastor Jeremiah Dowling, who heads the Kresgeville-based youth group, said. “It’s also good for the students just to see that there’s needs in the area and that they can make a difference and help out.”

Two of those students, Lexi Bock and Emily Hoffman, were charged with manning the wrapping station — a task neither took lightly.

“It’s a way of giving back to your community,” Bock, 14, said. “There’s a lot of people who aren’t as fortunate.”

Since everything in the Secret Santa Shop is offered free of charge, Hoffman added, it gives kids an easy way to spread cheer in their families around the holidays.

“It’s something that you don’t need a lot of money for,” Hoffman, 16, said. “All you have to do is show up.”