More families need food bank
November 25, 2009
By Tara Ballenger
Each week this year, Greg Schatzlein has watched the line at the Mt. Si Helping Hand Food Bank grow.
Len Mattson arranges bags of lettuce at the Helping Hand Food Bank in North Bend. Mattson has been volunteering at the food bank on Wednesdays for six years. Staff photo
Forty percent more people are coming to the weekly food bank than in October of last year, according to Schatzlein, director of the food bank.
The line is steady every Wednesday, as families wait their turn to make their way through the small yellow interior of the building and stock up on staples, like bread, frozen salmon and peanut butter, before making their way to the miniature produce section.
Most of the increase, Schatzlein said, was from working or once-working families, not homeless people, as some might suspect.
“These are families that may have always been working, but now Dad or maybe Mom has lost a job,” he said.
To feed these new clients, Helping Hand relies on a small army of more than 100 volunteers — many from churches around the Valley — and two part-time employees. Together, they help serve more than 350 families about 15,000 pounds of food each week. That will add up to nearly $1 million worth of food each year, according to Schatzlein.
Besides Food Lifeline and Northwest Harvest — two nonprofit groups that distribute food to local banks — Helping Hand keeps its shelves stocked with help from IGA, QFC, Safeway, Costco and other area grocery stores that offer free or reduced prices on many of their groceries. The organization also receives donations from the cities of North Bend and Snoqualmie, the Salvation Army and private citizens.
However the food gets there, John Adoch is just happy it reaches him.
“Life would be a lot more difficult without being able to get this food once a week,” said Adoch, as he perused the bread rack.
He said he loads up on high-protein items that store well and will fill him up.
Margy Corder, who has volunteered at Helping Hand with her church, Our Lady of Sorrows in Snoqualmie for the past 12 years, said the look of gratitude in the eyes of many of the people who wind their way through the line at Helping Hand has kept her coming back.
“You really get to know these people and their stories,” Corder said. “Some are new and never thought they’d be here — people losing jobs and they have families to feed, and they are grateful.”
Helping Hand shares a lot with the Mount Si Community Church, which also helps sponsor the bank. On Wednesdays, volunteers serve a hot breakfast in the church’s dining hall while the food bank is in its busiest hours. The breakfast is one place where the Valley’s homeless population can get a hot meal, said Harold Erland, crisis outreach coordinator at the church.
“They have nowhere else to go get food,” he said.
While those without the luxury of kitchens and dining rooms fill themselves with pancakes, eggs, sausage and hot coffee, parents and couples facing unemployment and trying not to lose their apartments or homes often choose to use the food bank to help fill their cupboards and make their budgets stretch a little farther.
Martha Hykel stood outside the food bank as adults and children filtered out of the line, handing out bright neon fliers with recipes for the food available at the food bank that week.
She works for the University of Washington and King County Extension Office, and her job is to help hungry people make their selections last longer. She said she is especially proud of a recipe that will make 24 toasted mini pizzas from one package of bagels, which can sometimes be a little stale, because they are a few days old before they are donated.
“A lot of people have questions,” she said. “People ask about everything from how to make the powdered milk to how to make packaged vegetarian meat sauce taste good.”
Schatzlein said the many resources offered by the food bank are needed by clients despite the season, and the colder months don’t bring any influx of families.
The holidays, though, are when people feel most aware of those less fortunate and more generous about giving. It is the main time for donations for the food bank, and those donations help carry the food bank through the rest of the year, Schatzlein said.
Tara Ballenger: 392-6434 ext. 248 or tballenger@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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