Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is nestled in the center of a charming community, and is meeting the needs of their neighbors in good times and when times are hard. Their facility is clean and very well organized, with ample shelf storage space. On the day we visited, they had just finished serving 82 families (data was instantly available thanks to the ClientCard FB3 software program!), with 12-15 new families arriving every day they're open. Every month, they distribute about 70,000 pounds of food to their community. They do this with 3 paid staff and about 70 regular volunteers.
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| Kim of Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank shows off beautiful greens donated by Full Circle Farms. |
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| The food bank was nearly out of cereal recently, so they put out the call for help to their community and had their shelves STOCKED before they knew it! |
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| Avery, daughter of Washington Food Coalition's Executive Director Julie Washburn, tests the sturdiness of their crates. |
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| Excellent storage. |
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| This is the area where clients are served. The clients can choose what foods they want, in order to ensure it is food that will be used by their family. |
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| Beautiful quilts were hand-made for homeless clients. |
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| Triple X Restaurant donates toys for children to receive as birthday presents. |
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| BEST PRACTICE ALERT! Employees and volunteers save their empty water bottles. Costco then donates large quantities of cleaning liquids, and the food bank repacks them into these water bottles. Great idea! |
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| Every family has the opportunity to shop through the clothing bank on their visit. |
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Mount Si Food Bank in North Bend makes the most of its well organized little space in order to meet the growing needs of its community. They serve around 400 families a week, and all of them are served on Wednesdays when the food bank is open all day. They usually see 10-15 new families every day that they are open. Since food donations are down in recent times, they have had to purchase a large amount of food to keep their shelves stocked for families in need.
There are many different programs and services being provided at this location besides simply weekly food service. Last summer they started their Summer Cupboard program, where families with children are given additional breakfast and lunch food when they visit the food bank for their regular groceries.
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| A happy volunteer distributed the Summer Cupboard items. |
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| A BBQ event is one of many additional services provided to families in need in the area. |
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| Sandy happily greets clients as they arrive and signs them in through their ClientCard software program, which allows for a quick and easy entry for clients. |
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| Clients receive color coded clothespins upon arrival based on their family size, which guides them in their shopping on how much food they're able to take. |
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| Milk is regularly purchased, in order to ensure plenty is available. |
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| Families are able to take plenty of fruits and vegetables. |
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