EVENTS HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA.
TRI-CITIES, FOOD BANKS, MOBILE MARKET, FOOD SUPPLY, VOLUNTEERS – MARCH 27
SECOND HARVEST TRI-CITIES IN THE NEWS
Second Harvest’s Pasco hunger solution center hosted two drive-thru food distributions this week to meet the increased need for food assistance in the area. At each distribution, families received emergency food boxes filled with more than 20 pounds of fresh, frozen and non-perishable food items.
While we prepared 250 boxes for each distribution, more than 600 cars lined up for Tuesday’s event—showcasing the growing need for food in the Tri-Cities community. The distributions were covered by local news outlets. Read more here and here.
FOOD BANKS
We’ve leased an additional truck and trailer and hired two temporary drivers to help meet the increased need for food during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our emergency agency network team is keeping in close contact with our partner food banks and meals sites about barriers they’re facing in delivering services. Additional freight capacity and driver support will help keep partners food banks and meal sites stocked as we cope with a significant influx of people seeking food assistance. Thank you to all our donors who made this possible!
MOBILE MARKET
Our Mobile Market hit the road this week, providing food to more than 1,200 families total at distributions in Colfax, Loon Lake and Spokane. In addition to our Mobile Market bus, which serves the Spokane area, our larger-scale Mobile Market truck will be on the road four to five times a week and will target many high-need rural areas.
FOOD SUPPLY
While navigating this crisis in the last two weeks, we’ve had more food flow out our doors than is coming in. Disruptions in our supply chain have made it difficult to keep up with the unprecedented need for food we’re seeing in our region. Second Harvest will continue to monitor our incoming food supply as the COVID-19 crisis continues.
VOLUNTEERS
Food bank volunteers are exempt under the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order enacted in Washington earlier this week. We are still in need of volunteers to help sort and repack food for distribution to our partner agencies and through Mobile Market distributions. Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers this week! If you’d like to volunteer, you can sign up here.
A special thank you to Steve, a volunteer who has shown up every day – all day – to help get food to people who need it. While his employer is temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Steve has spent his time off helping feed his community. Read more about Steve here.
To sign up to receive our updates to COVID-19 via email, please click here.
Gonzaga’s Dusty Stromer and Zilch: Teaming up to end hunger – March 29
Dusty Stromer understood from a young age that while his family had enough to eat, others in his circle were not so fortunate. Dusty had a courtside seat to food insecurity — he says that by age 10, he knew some of his friends came from households where food was not reliably available.
A freshman shooting guard on the men’s basketball team at Gonzaga University, Dusty recently got a close look at the fight against hunger by touring Second Harvest’s warehouse and helping to distribute free food through its Zilch program.
Grocery Rescue: Changing lives daily – March 22
Your visit to a local grocery store may seem like a routine, unimportant chore. That perfect strawberry, tomato or apple you select is made possible because different departments of your neighborhood store carefully maintain a standard for each product. But what happens when the banana is too green, or the strawberries are too ripe? That product is stranded and without rescue would find its way to the landfill. Thanks to stores partnering with Second Harvest’s Grocery Rescue program, that nutritious food is shared with partner agencies throughout the 26 counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho served by Second Harvest.
Winter 2024 Newsletter – March 15
Check out the latest news from Second Harvest. Serving people facing hunger across the Inland Northwest.
Feeding Eastern Washington and North Idaho
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