Cache Valley Humanitarian uplifts Logan’s vulnerable
In 2021, Dwight and Katherine Whittaker founded the Cache Valley Humanitarian Center to help supplement the needs of underserved people in Logan. In conjunction with other organizations like The Family Place and Women, Infants, and Children, they work to help poverty-level and low-income families.
“I’ve always had a tender spot for those in need,” Dwight said. “We started about four years ago with the idea that there are needs that are unmet, and we had some experience in Idaho Falls, and we just kept getting the feeling that there were similar needs here in Cache Valley.”
An initial $2000 was granted to start the center, and they have since expanded from an office space to an unused elementary school located at 420 S. 500 E. in River Heights.
Mary Ann Clark has worked at the center as a member of the board of directors and has volunteered for the past two years. She has lived in the valley her entire life and has seen firsthand the unmet needs of many families.
“My work means I’m giving back. In my life, I have been blessed, and it keeps me growing to be on the board,” Clark said. “I just feel that people are so good. People are generous. People want to do good things and help.”
The center has a space with looms to create sleeping mats and a quilting area stocked with fabrics. They create kits out of donated or purchased goods such as toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. Their newborn kits come with knitted sleep and headwear and toys for the infants.
“The first thing that was identified as a need was back-to-school kits for poverty-level or low-income kids,” Dwight said. “After school got started, school districts and agencies said they needed hygiene kits.”
The center works with agencies and organizations to identify what individuals need most. Following back-to-school, coats were needed as the winter months approached.
The center produces sleeping mats for warming centers made up of grocery bags. Volunteers work to stack, fold and cut bags and weave them together to make a mat that insulates heat and adds comfort during the winter months. People can discard their unused bags at the center or at Lee’s Marketplace.
Sister Etherington and Dana Webster work on a quilt at the Cache Valley Humanitarian Center on Feb. 11, 2025.
Dwight says there are many ways people can get involved and serve their community.
“Students at Utah State University have been a valuable resource,” Dwight says. “A lot of students who are looking for leadership or service hours have contacted us — we’ve had the USU basketball team and the women’s soccer team come in. The Huntsman School of Business has put together hygiene kits for us for the past two years. Some people donate component parts for the kits.”
Katherine Whittaker oversees production at the center.
“There just seems to be a need for what we have,” Katherine said. “It’s an ongoing process — counselors will come in and take things for their students — and I think we are really needed in this community.”
Hundreds of back-to-school kits are sent out during the summer, and many kits for low-income mothers and their infants are made to be sent out to the WIC. The center also works with USU’s Student Nutrition Access Center to provide students with poultry, lentils, greens and canned goods.
The Whittaker family worked with the Idaho Falls Area Humanitarian Center before moving to Logan to be close to their kids. Now, they work with over 30 organizations and school districts throughout Cache Valley.
“We ask the agencies and school districts, ‘What are your needs? How can we help you help people in desperate situations?,’ and then we start working forward,” Dwight said. “People are very generous, and they want to help. We have a core of 60-70 volunteers that come every week to donate their time.”
Clark said the center provides people with a space to connect and serve, and it has a strong impact on both the volunteers and the community.
“We have many widows that come in and serve, and one of them said, ‘I will pay you to let me come because I need this,’” Clark said. “It’s a tight group in there — they laugh, they talk, it’s needed.”
According to Clark, the center has opened the eyes of many to the needs of people in the community.
“Our valley’s growing — our valley’s changing,” Clark said. “More people, the culture is changing, and the bottom line is that people are good.”
The center is open on Tuesday mornings from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Wednesday afternoons from 2-4 p.m. They work with locals, students, service missionaries and have taken on interns. More information can be found at cachevalleyhumanitariancenter.com or by calling 208-206-3270.