Spokane Members (mini)Van Tour!

Modeled after Seattle Food Committee's Van Tour, Washington Food Coalition partnered with several of our members in Spokane to coordinate a small tour of different emergency food provider agencies in the area.

Our first stop was House of Charity. Tami Rossi runs the kitchen there, where she feeds hundreds daily on an astoundingly tiny purchasing budget of $500 per month (!!) The kitchen serves about 70,000 meals annually, and works closely with other services provided at this location.

The men who stay overnight at the shelter on the second floor each receive their own locker (with special ventilation systems built into the lockers), showers, clean pajamas and laundry service.

The sleeping room is incredibly clean at this facility, where they provide 108 beds every night to homeless men.

Volunteer doctors and nurses regularly provide checkups and basic health services to clients.

A chapel is at the center of the first floor of the facility.

Stuffed avocados were the menu item on the day of our visit. Tami's background is in the commercial food industry for 30 years, so the quality of the menu here is impressive.

This is where the meals are served.

The second stop on the tour was Serve Spokane, a volunteer-run food bank just a few miles form downtown Spokane. Susan Kokkinen is the Director of the food bank and showed the group their facility where they serve 650 families every month. They are open on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month.

On days when the food bank is open, this area is full of donated food and grateful clients.

Toiletries and baby food are kept stocked for those who need it.

Multiple ministries besides the food bank operate out of Serve Spokane, including this clothing bank.
More about all their services:
Food PantryCelebrate RecoveryCity Reach Clothing Ministry Project Hope Special Needs 

 

Shopping carts help clients bring their food out to their vehicles.

Faithful volunteers are critical to this agency.

The final stop on our tour was at the SNAP Northeast Food Pantry. Cara Kowalski serves as the Food Bank Coordinator there as part of JVC Northwest/AmeriCorps. 

This food bank accomplishes a lot with a little-they serve 600-700 families per month out of an extremely small space. Families can make appointments to come pick up food, and the food bank is open every day.

One of the fun aspects to the program that Cara shared is how they have partnered with Cakes for Kids to provides birthday cakes for children who visit the food bank.

The food bank operates out of 2 small rooms.

Helpful resources and information for volunteers is posted around the food bank.

Volunteers sort through food for clients.

Cara and her wonderful volunteer Sheila.