Meet Our Members - Southeast Tacoma FISH Food Bank

FISH Food Banks coordinate 7 different food bank locations across Pierce County, seeking to meet the growing need of families facing hunger in their community.

Their Southeast Tacoma FISH Food Bank is the busiest of them all, serving about 340 families every day that they're open (Mon: 11am-4 pm. Wed: 11 am-6 pm. Fri: 11 am-4 pm). The growing numbers in the last several years caused this location to more than double the size of their space, and even still they are busting at the seams.

This picture shows the pallets that the volunteers move outside every morning and inside every evening (stored in the aisleways of the food bank) because their space is so full. At the time, they had 42 pallets being moved regularly. However, these mounds of food will be gone and need to be replenished within a matter of days with the high volume of clients coming through their doors.

This location is bustling with happy, fulfilled volunteers and clients being treated with dignity in their family atmosphere. This is the 2nd year that they've brought in Santa during the holidays to bring even more cheer to those who come through the door!

Click here to learn more about the wonderful network of FISH Food Banks in Pierce County.
Click here to read a recent article in The News Tribune about this food bank.


Visitors at the food bank are able to receive clothes and other items in the clothing bank at the same site.

Fantastic volunteers: when asked if they minded having their picture taken, they responded "Only if we can keep working."


Danny Kiourkas, Food Bank Coordinator, and Phil Membrere, faithful volunteer, make sure things keep running at the food bank no matter what the demands.


The food bank upgraded to a shopping method several years ago, giving their clients the opportunity to choose appropriate foods for their families' needs.


Santa brings cheer to every child that visits the food bank.


Joni, one of many faithful volunteers, enjoys helping clients get checked in at the food bank.

Follow Up: Statement from Children's Alliance on SFA cut

The State Food Assistance Program is a vital resource for 14,000 Washington residents who do not qualify for federal food stamps. These individuals comprise 1.4% of the one million plus people in our state currently receiving food assistance through Basic Food. This vital nutritional safety net is second only to Unemployment Insurance as the most effect counter-recessionary tool we have in times of lingering economic slowdown, like the present time.

The Governor has proposed eliminating funding for this program in her Supplemental and Biennial Budget proposals. Program elimination will affect a total of 31,000 people living in households that currently receive state food assistance benefits. One-half of these people are children. Loss of a critical part of family resources for food means a rise in food insecurity and childhood hunger.

We strongly urge the legislature to save the State Food Assistance Program in its current form.

The program piggy-backs on the federal Basic Food (food stamp) Program which is delivered through DSHS Community Service Offices. Administrative costs are low -- only 2% of the total program administration in these offices.

Benefits are spent in community grocery stores. USDA has found that for each $5 of benefits spent, a total of $9 of economic activity is generate in the community.

Retaining the current program structure is a key priority. While benefits may be reduced due to the state's revenue shortfall, retention of the program would allow restoration of benefits in future years.

The Governor has proposed investing part of the funds saved from eliminating the program in February 2011 in a $3 billion increase in funding to community food banks for the remainder of this biennium and a $15 million increase in funding for food banks next biennium. Food banks are an excellent resource for hungry families in Washington; the current state investment provides cost-effective food assistance in all areas of the state.

However, the State Food Assistance Program is a well-targeted and effective program with a cost-effective administrative structure. Recipients of the program live primarily in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties. Loss of the program will have a particular impact there AND at the local grocery stores frequently by recipients.

In conclusion, we urge the legislature to quickly affirm that the State Food Assistance Program structure should be retained in the Supplemental and Biennial budgets.

childrensalliance.org

Press Release from WFC on SFA cut

Contact: Julie Washburn Phone: (206) 910-7150

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1 P.M. PST, December 15th, 2010

Seattle, Washington, December 15^th, 2010: Washington Food Coalition is opposed to the elimination of State Food Assistance and believes that the trade-off of putting more money into food banks is the wrong choice. Governor Gregoire proposes providing an additional $15 million to food banks around the state to make up for the elimination of $60 million in food stamp benefits, and she suggests that nonprofits and the faith-based organizations will need to step up to be the sole safety net for people in need. However, when it comes to ending hunger, we simply cannot do it alone.

While our Coalition members fight on tirelessly, doing everything in our power to help people have nutritious food to eat, we continue to watch the problem of hunger in our communities grow. WSDA food programs have seen a 27% increase over the past 3 years.

In addition, according to the 2010 Hungry in Washington Report released by the Children’s Alliance, one in seven households (14.7%) in our state struggled to put enough food on the table—the highest rate since the USDA began recording this figure in 1995.

Local food banks and meal programs are already stretched beyond capacity as they have seen visits increasing and donations decreasing due to the recession. The charitable hunger response system alone cannot adequately provide for the increased numbers of people in need that we will see from the elimination of this and other basic safety net programs.

The services food banks provide are not a like for like replacement for the loss of food stamp dollars. Indeed, they are supplemental services, and many families rely on both to have enough to eat. When Governor Gary Locke and the legislature created the State Food Assistance Program in 1997, a variety of delivery systems were considered. The unanimous view of the emergency food system then was that reaching individuals no longer eligible for federal food stamps through the state’s emergency food network would be very difficult. Emergency food infrastructure continues to differ across the state. A food stamp look-alike program was the best choice for addressing the sudden loss of federal food stamps and spending of these food benefits in local grocery stores assures $9 in local economic impact for every $5 spent.

Food stamps are dollars that provide people with choices; important for dietary-specific or culturally relevant food they need that they may not be getting at their local food bank. Food stamps also allow the flexibility of being used at any convenient time that local stores are open, whereas food banks and meal programs are limited in their abilities for open hours. Lastly, food stamps also have a positive economic impact—for every $5 in benefits spent at local grocery stores, $9 in local economic activity is generated.

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Meet Our Members - ForKids program at Thurston County Food Bank

Want to learn more about what it takes to start and run a school backpack program? Cheryl Falkenburg, of the ForKids program at Thurston County Food Bank, shares what it took for them to make this best practice happen:

I was hired by the Food Bank to manage this project in 2007. This was a pilot program and we focused on homeless children in the elementary schools, Preschool - 6th grade plus siblings. We assembled bags at the food bank with a weekend worth of meals (1 hot cereal packet, one cold cereal, one shelf stable milk, one real fruit juice, two fruit cups, cup of soup, easy mac, granola bar, snack cracker with cheese or peanut butter and two protein items). We created an assembly line and used plastic grocery bags (used for the most part and picked up from the recycle at grocery stores), passed the bag down the tables where the food items were sitting in banana boxes (the packaging tool the Food Bank uses for everything) and when the bag got to the end of the table (past all of the items), it was double knotted and placed in a banana box (six bags/banana box), six banana boxes per level, on a pallet.

I have a crew come in weekly and build my bags for the next week. (if the numbers were smaller, I could build for two weeks, but we served 1106 children last week and this number keeps growing)

I contacted all of the schools in our area (we have four school districts we work with). It is helpful if the school district has a homeless liaison, or home visitor specialist. Our first point of contact with the school district was the Public Information Officer and/Homeless Liaison. We shared our idea of identifying the homeless children in their school (the counselors generally know who they are) and having bags delivered to the schools where the counselors would discreetly distribute the bags (place them in the child's backpack) from their office or somewhere else private. Once we had all of the homeless children identified, counselors started telling us of other children who were always hungry and asking for food. These children are usually the ones on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. So, now the counselors send home a letter to the children on that list and ask the family if their child(ren ) could benefit from this service. Weekly, the counselors fill out a form we created that shows grade level, gender and new/returning students (Our executive director uses this information to write grants).

This program is an expensive program, but we have a board and staff who are extremely committed to ending hunger in our neighborhood and have supported the growth. This program is also one that garners support and donations because hungry children tug at our heart strings. Since the children are often alone at home, of varying age and ability, the food needs to be serving size and easy for them to fix on their own. This necessitates a more expensive type of product. We don't get enough food through donations, so I have to purchase pallets of food from wholesale stores. I purchase shelf stable milk - two pallets at a time...

Naturally, we didn't start that first year off serving 1100 children a week, we started off small - limiting the school district to a finite number we could afford and defining the recipient as "homeless". I have over 150 volunteers who come in monthly to package, sort food, assemble the school's orders and drive the food to the schools. In the beginning, I didn't need that many, but that need has grown as well, plus I never have a problem finding people to help the children.

We started out serving only elementary schools, but have created a pantry model for middle schools. Another organization serves the High Schools, but a pantry model would work great there as well. For older children, it is nice to be able to make choices, and also I have larger containers - like a soup size Ravioli instead of microwavable size Ravioli cup.

I guess the best place to start would be to find out the need, then go to the Food Bank and see if they have the $$ means to support it. Or, if the Food Bank can't support it you might consider asking a church. I do have a large church that I give my list of food items to and the congregation collects the items and they assemble bags at the church and bring me the bags - they do about 44 a month.

The YWCA Other Bank approached me and asked if they could assemble hygiene kits and bring them down. I let them know my numbers and they work hard to get me kits as often as possible. We also partner with South Sound Reading Foundation. I give them my numbers and they assemble books appropriate to the age/gender and take them to the schools where the kids get a free book.

So, the sky is the limit on the great things that can come from a program like this.

Special by TV Tacoma: Washington Food Coalition in Pierce County and Beyond

Meet Our Members - Food Lifeline

Food Lifeline is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Food Lifeline makes every penny count, and 94% of the food they receive from local, state and national contributors is donated.

Working to End Hunger

Last year, Food Lifeline secured more than 31 million pounds of food – the equivalent of more than 24 million meals – to feed hungry people throughout Western Washington. Food Lifeline provides food to over 686,000 people through their network of nearly 300 emergency feeding programs including food banks, hot meal programs and shelters. 96 cents of every dollar they receive goes directly toward feeding these hungry people.

Innovative Solutions

Food Lifeline provides a creative link between foo

d sources and hungry people. They encourage the food industry to donate unmarketable but usable food it wou

ld otherwise discard, and collect millions of pounds of food each year as a result. Local restaurants and caterers contribute prepared food through their award-winning Seattle's Table program, and fresh produce is collected from wholesalers and retailers through their Produce for the People program. Local grocery retailers also donate a variety of nutritious products like meat, dairy, fresh produce and baked goods through our Grocery Rescue program.

Help for Your Community

Food Lifeline is also the designated agency for distribution of state and federal food commodities in King County, an affiliate of Feeding America, and is one of the United Way of King County's partner agencies.

Images from Food Lifeline's Shoreline warehouse:

A big thanks to Rebecca Van Maren, Hunger Fellow and Kelsey Beck, Public Policy Manager, for a great tour of Food Lifeline's Shoreline warehouse where they receive, sort and re-package food to food the hungry of Western Washington!