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.
From The Kitchen: Cooking with dried beans, lentils and peas – March 8
Have you ever received dried goods, such as beans, lentils or split peas, and felt stumped on how to use them? Cooking with dried goods can seem daunting, especially if you’re used to using canned varieties. However, dried beans, lentils and split peas are affordable and often found in food pantries, so cooking with them is a great skill to gain confidence in. Continue reading for some tips and tricks on how to prepare dried ingredients and gain some cooking inspiration from Second Harvest recipes that utilize them.
National Agriculture Month: Celebrating Ag Partners and Friends – March 1
We take immense pleasure throughout the year in celebrating our agriculture partners and friends. But during National Agriculture Month, we take extra measures to recognize their continued support, contributions and commitment to Second Harvest’s mission of serving people facing hunger.
Our ag partners range from small, local farms to large industry farms, livestock operations, and the processing and manufacturing plants that support them.
Why I support Second Harvest: A donor’s story – February 23
Nothing is more important than having food on the table. To state the obvious, food—like shelter—is something without which we cannot survive. Second Harvest thus quite literally provides a lifeline for those whom my wife and I cannot feed directly. And it has done so for the nearly 40 years that we have supported Second Harvest. During this period we have seen not even a hint that their mission is diminishing in importance. On the contrary, the organization seems to be throwing out more and more lifelines to those in our midst who are in danger of sinking.
Feeding Eastern Washington and North Idaho
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