Meet Our Members: Emergency Food Network

In addition to serving as Washington Food Coalition's Board Chair, Helen McGovern-Pilant serves as the Executive Director for Emergency Food Network (EFN) in Pierce County. This organization is the only food distribution center in the county, and provides an incredible source for hunger relief programs throughout the community.

The main facility for EFN is its distribution center, which is located in Lakewood. There is over 20,000 square feet for dry storage at this location. Food is received and sent out into the community, often being repacked right at the warehouse before being sent out. This distribution center provides critical access to high-quality food at high-quantity pricing (with most of it even being donated!) to local agencies that lack the capacity to receive, store, and repack this type of inventory.

EFN is committed to sourcing the healthiest food that they reasonably can. Over 50% of what is distributed is fruits and vegetables, and over 80% is highly nutritious.

The clients that EFN serves includes 67 feeding programs throughout the county. At EFN, they are always looking for innovative ways to partner with their clients. A recent example of this is their development of Break Bags, and they are partnering with St. Leo's Food Connection to make this happen. These bags will send school children home with an ample supply of food to keep them fed during spring break when they won't have access to school meals.

Executive Director Helen McGovern-Pilant displays one of their Break Bags, a new and innovative way to fight child hunger during school breaks.

The distribution center is only 1 of 3 different programs that is run out of Emergency Food Network. The additional programs include Mother Earth Farm, and their Orchard. Visit their website to learn more about the distribution center and these other wonderful programs.
EFN recently worked with Washington Food Coalition to develop interactive maps for our members across the state. They also developed interactive maps to illustrate the food system in Pierce County. You can check out the results from this mapping project here and here.

EFN adds cooking instructions in multiple languages to
many of their products - a huge benefit to clients!

EFN partners with their client agency FISH Food Banks of Pierce County to stock Pierce County's mobile food bank.