EVENTS HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES, FOOD DELIVERY SERVICE AND MORE – DECEMBER 5
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Family sort nights are back in Second Harvest’s Spokane Hunger Solution Center! Families with children 9 and older can volunteer together to help sort and pack food that we share with our partner agencies and through our Mobile Market for our neighbors in need. For more information about volunteering, click here. To sign up to volunteer, click here.
While our Pasco Hunger Solution Center has not been open to volunteers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we know volunteering is an important and meaningful way people give back to their community. We’re grateful for our community’s generous response to the increased need for food assistance during the COVID-19 crisis and are working to ensure that volunteers can safely return to the Pasco Hunger Solution soon. We do have ongoing Mobile Market volunteer opportunities available, however, and you can register online by clicking here. Watch for volunteer updates in our weekly emails and on social media.
SPOKANE COUNTY FOOD DELIVERY SERVICE
Second Harvest is partnering with Special Mobility Services and other organizations to help bring food to people facing food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis. During December, Special Mobility Services and additional partners are piloting a home delivery program in Spokane County. Second Harvest is providing 10-pound boxes of shelf-stable food items to be delivered to participating families. Both the food provided through this program and the delivery service are funded by Spokane County CARES Act grants. See below for more information about this program.
MOBILE MARKET
This December, Washington’s Beef Community is helping to address the increased need for food assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing holiday roasts at three Mobile Market events in Toppenish, Yakima and Ellensburg. The Beef Counts—Washington’s Beef Community United Against Hunger—program is celebrating its 10th anniversary of providing nutritious beef to hungry families. For more about this partnership and the upcoming Mobile Market distributions, click here or here.
THANKSGIVING TURKEY DRIVES
Amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, Second Harvest’s Thanksgiving turkey drives were a huge success this year thanks to the generous support of our volunteers, donors and sponsors!
The 21st annual Tom’s Turkey Drive in Spokane provided 11,000 Thanksgiving meal boxes to people facing hunger in the Greater Spokane area. Thanks to a generous food donor, an additional 760 families received a frozen turkey after all meal boxes had been distributed. You can watch a clip of KREM 2’s coverage of the event here and here or view the Spokesman Review’s photo gallery from the event here.
To sign up to receive our COVID-19 updates via email, please click here.
Food Safety First: – April 19
In January and March, AIB International conducted audits of our facilities – the Pasco Distribution Center, the Spokane Distribution Center and the Wolff Family Child Hunger Solution Center. As has been the case for more than a decade, we received scores of 930 or higher, out of a possible 1000. Anything above 900 is considered exemplary.
While receiving high scores from AIB is important, we are equally proud of the fact that any day of the year, our team is always working to keep our buildings clean and our food supply safe. This speaks to the strong food safety culture we have here at Second Harvest.
A celebration of our volunteers – April 12
Volunteering doesn’t have to be a one-time thing and the individuals who volunteer at Second Harvest in Spokane and Pasco have proven that in many ways. Even though April is nationally recognized as Volunteer Month, our gratitude for your service is year-round. In the last couple of years, the Volunteer Center in Spokane has gone through various changes and adjustments to keep up with the increase in food demand, prompted first by COVID in 2020 and then by inflation. Even with the changes, our volunteer support has stayed and become even stronger. Our community is filled with mission-driven individuals to help us feed, nourish and build the community around us.
In The Kitchen: Food Waste Prevention Week – April 5
Earth Month is the perfect opportunity to reflect on our habits and how they impact the planet. We might think about how often we drive and take advantage of the nicer weather to bike to work, or maybe even grab some friends and family and find a river cleanup event for Earth Day. But did you know that you can make an impact without even leaving your house? In fact, reflecting on our cooking and grocery shopping habits has the potential to have a greater and long-lasting impact on our environment.
Feeding Eastern Washington and North Idaho
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