EVENTS HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA.
NATIONAL GUARD AND NATIONAL NUTRITION MONTH – APRIL 2
THANK YOU, NATIONAL GUARD!
Second Harvest celebrated the hard work of the National Guard members who have been serving at our Spokane Hunger Solution Center since last year with a special lunch last week. The National Guard was deployed in May 2020 in response to the skyrocketing need for food assistance in the wake of the pandemic. The National Guard has been a critical part of Second Harvest’s COVID-19 crisis response. With their help, Second Harvest distributed nearly 53 million pounds of food throughout 2020—a 58% increase over the previous calendar year. After nearly a year of pandemic response, the National Guard has demobilized from Second Harvest in Spokane, as their skillsets are needed elsewhere at this time.
The staff, volunteers, donors and partners of Second Harvest are immensely grateful to the members of the National Guard for their committed effort to getting food to people who need it most during this crisis. Thank you for your service!
NATIONAL NUTRITION MONTH
Second Harvest’s goal isn’t just to feed people. We want to feed people well. We know that access to nutritious food, especially fresh produce, is critical to an individual’s health and the wellbeing of our community. That’s why we work hard to ensure that nearly three-quarters of the food we provide is fresh and perishable.
United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties recently highlighted Second Harvest’s Hunger Solution Center in Pasco in honor of National Nutrition Month in March. You can watch their video to learn more about what Second Harvest is doing to encourage healthy eating. You can also find lots of great recipes, courtesy of The Kitchen at Second Harvest, to make at home here.
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Kids Cooking Camps – February 9
Three times a year, we offer kids cooking camps that help support our programming year-round. These camps meet for two-hour sessions, Monday through Thursday, and are designed for kids ages 8-12. We pick a different theme for each camp so it’s always a new experience for our return campers. The kids get to eat what they make and take home cookbooks to recreate the recipes in their own kitchens.
Spending time in the kitchen is such a valuable tool for children as they develop their motor skills, social skills, confidence, and learn to problem solve. They practice basic skills like math and reading, too. We also focus on sharing nutrition knowledge through activities, discussions, and best of all, tasting how good nutritious foods like whole grains and vegetables can taste.
Cook up inspiration as a nutrition ambassador – January 26
In The Kitchen, we host cooking classes every week that are free to the public — especially our neighbors facing hunger. We focus on recipes that are nutritious, affordable and use ingredients sourced from our very own warehouse. We want our neighbors to know all about the health benefits of those canned chickpeas they keep seeing on the shelf at the food pantry and how they can cook them.
To execute these cooking classes, our nutrition education team partners with a dynamite group of volunteers whom we call nutrition ambassadors.
Zilch: Feed More. Waste Nothing. – January 19
Second Harvest has always looked to rescued food as a pillar of food sourcing and implemented a variety of programs to provide food to neighbors in need. Hard as we work, some of the food we rescue can’t be saved; fortunately, local animal farmers help us close the last gap in the system by taking the unsalvageable food. But our work is never done, so we continue to innovate and seek additional opportunities to feed more and waste nothing. That’s where the idea of our new program called Zilch takes root. The idea is simple but embodies our mission: No hunger. No waste. Nothing. None. Zilch!
Feeding Eastern Washington and North Idaho
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