EVENTS HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA.
BMAC, SPOKANE PACKAGING, MOBILE MARKETS, MAYOR NADINE WOODWARD – APRIL 24
BLUE MOUNTAIN ACTION COUNCIL GOES MOBILE
COVID-19 has had unimaginable impact on hunger across the Inland Northwest. Second Harvest is providing additional food supplies to longtime partner Blue Mountain Action Council (BMAC) in Walla Walla to fill serious gaps in southeastern Washington because of the pandemic. BMAC has taken the lead on three weekly drive-thru distributions to ensure that people facing so many uncertainties right now get the food they need.
With a local church pantry closing temporarily due to COVID-19, BMAC has been hosting a drive-thru food distribution on Saturdays. More than 600 Walla Walla families have been served each week in BMAC’s parking lot. BMAC also added a drive-thru distribution in Burbank, Washington that’s serving more than 130 families weekly. In rural Columbia County, the local food pantry also had to close temporarily to protect its vulnerable elderly volunteers. On Tuesday, April 14, BMAC provided food to 158 families during the first of what will be weekly drive-thru distributions at the Columbia County Fairgrounds.
Thank you, BMAC, for going the extra mile to get food to where it’s needed most during this crisis.
Prepacked emergency food boxes are the new normal now and for the foreseeable future to help protect food bank clients from coronavirus. Shout out to Spokane Packaging, who donated 34,000 boxes to package emergency food as part of Second Harvest’s COVID-19 response efforts.
“Our company has been privately owned by a family in Seattle for 53 years. Since its founding, the original owner and now his sons have always taken pride in taking care of their employees and in addition have used their resources to help others outside the company in the communities we serve,” said Craig MacDonald of Spokane Packaging.
Mike Thomsen, Second Harvest’s vice president of food sourcing, has high praise for Spokane Packaging. “They stepped up without any hesitation whatsoever and responded with generosity far above our expectations.”
MOBILE MARKET PICKS UP PACE
Second Harvest’s Mobile Market continues to find ways to get more emergency food boxes directly to people struggling through the unstable COVID-19 economy.
It wasn’t easy for a Spokane woman to ask for help for the first time, lining up with 49 other cars at West Central Community Center in Spokane on Tuesday afternoon. Cecelia teared up as a volunteer loaded an emergency food box into her car for her and her husband. “I just appreciate everything everyone is doing for everybody. I just pray that it’s over soon,” Cecelia said of life during the pandemic.
SPOKANE MAYOR VISITS
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward visited Second Harvest on Tuesday. She thanked the National Guard for their essential role in helping to meet basic food needs in the community during the COVID-19 crisis.
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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