Mount Si Food Bank scrambles to make up for funding cuts
November 25, 2011
File Dinora Barahona (left), of North Bend, picks out food while volunteer Denise Angrisano assists at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
Officials at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank are still wondering how the organization will make ends meet next year after unexpectedly losing about $19,000 in federal funding this summer.
The food bank is one of many groups in King County caught off guard by the cut of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA officials changed the formula for distributing the money, and determined that King County wasn’t poor enough to qualify, because its unemployment and poverty rates were not high enough. Last year, the county received $1.2 million of the $4 million that went to Washington.
Calling all turkeys! North Bend food bank needs turkey donations
November 9, 2011
Mount Si Helping Hands Food Bank needs help collecting 340 turkeys by Nov. 16.
Donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays and Tuesdays, and from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Arrange a special drop off time by calling the food bank’s director, Heidi Dukich, at 785-6789.
Learn more at www.mtsifoodbank.org.
Snoqualmie Tribe member honored for food bank work
February 23, 2011
Snoqualmie Tribe leader Mary Anne Hinzman was honored in early February for her work with the tribe’s food bank. The Snoqualmie Tribal Council voted to rename the food bank the Hinzman Food Center.
Hinzman, a tribal council member, said the announcement came as a complete surprise. “It means everything to me.”
The food bank was started in Redmond by Hinzman in 1977. Since then it has also operated out of Fall City and its current location in Carnation.
While focused on serving the local American Indian population, the food bank is open to the all. The facility serves approximately 225 families per week and provides more than 4,000 meals each year to low income people in the Snoqualmie Valley.
Hinzman said she opened the food bank because she felt existing community food banks discriminated against minorities.
A giving community flexes its muscle in Snoqualmie Valley
December 1, 2010
The need is great every year.
Despite the cold, more than 300 families went to the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank last week, seeking a little help for the cupboard.
Luckily for the Valley, the community’s generosity is pretty great every year, too.
Ways abound to spell solidarity in the Valley around the holidays. The North Bend-based Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank and the Kiwanis-sponsored Giving Tree campaign both are hitting it into overdrive as the holiday season begins in earnest.
“We live in a very giving community,” said Heidi Dukich, director of the food bank.
With the economy on the mend, the community also houses people in need, Dukich said. It’s a mistake to think of these people as freeloaders, she added.
“They get a hand up, not a hand out,” she said. “They come and they receive kindness and respect. Many of them are working and they just need some help.”
It’s not all about the food at the food bank, Dukich said. A big part of it is making a connection with people. That, she said, is how you build a community.
“Touching the lives of people who are in difficult times is wonderful and it’s what makes our community great to be part of,” she said.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a busy day at the food bank, with 16 volunteers helping.
Although Christmas is less than a month away, there is already another campaign for children of poor families under way.
The Giving Tree is collecting toys in 12 locations across the Valley and will collect them until Dec. 15.
Tina Maloney, the campaign’s chairperson said the Giving Tree goes back almost 15 years in the Valley.
On Dec. 15, volunteers will take all of the toys collected to Si View Park. Once the toys are there, Maloney and others will contact people who have signed up for toys for their children at the food bank.
“They’ll make an appointment,” Maloney said, “and they’ll come shop for their kids.”
Sign-up sheets will be available Dec. 8 and 15.
Parents are given points to shop with. One point equals about $10. Each parent gets between five and six points per child, or between $50 and $60 of shopping money per child.
The Kiwanis’ Giving Tree is taking donations at the city library, Cascade Office Supply, Encompass, QFC, Safeway, Ace Hardware and the Moose Lodge in North Bend; at Snoqualmie Falls Credit Union, Steve’s Doughnuts, IGA and City Hall in Snoqualmie; and at Hauglie Insurance in Fall City.
The Kiwanis’ high school branch, Key Club, is also collecting toys at Mount Si High School.
Children up to age 18 are eligible for a gift. Gift cards are OK; live pets as gifts are not, Maloney said.
Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.
Churches spearhead school supplies drive
August 26, 2010
NEW — 3:00 p.m. Aug. 26, 2010
Every year around July, Nancy Flanagan and Jan Van Liew wonder if they will meet the needs of children in the Valley.
And every year so far, the same answer arrives in late August: “Yes, by the grace of God,” Flanagan said.
Mount Si food bank provides a helping hand, not a handout
July 30, 2010
By Laura Geggel and Christopher Huber
NEW — 7:00 a.m. July 30, 2010
Dinora Barahona (left), of North Bend, picks out food while volunteer Denise Angrisano assists July 21 at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank. (Photo by Christopher Huber)
Juan Carlos Giron waited in line with about a dozen other Valley residents July 21 as the morning sun hit the east wall of the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
Giron is originally from El Salvador, he said, but he has lived in North Bend for about two years since moving from Los Angeles, then Federal Way. He loves it here because of its tranquil atmosphere, he said in Spanish — he speaks enough English to get by, though. And he has some friends in the Valley.
Growing demand presses Snoqualmie Valley food bank’s capacity to provide help
April 7, 2010
A customer at the Mt Si Food Bank in North Bend picks from fresh produce available for its increasing number of clients. (Photo by Dan Catchpole)
NEW — 2:41 p.m. April 7, 2010
By Sarah Gerdes
According to Washington statistics, 12 percent of the population is in need of assistance from food banks. With many low on or even out of food, questions of quality, availability and community participation are more critical than ever.
Food bank in North Bend hires new executive director
August 12, 2009
As the need for food grows, so does the Mt. Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
Following the recent expansion of the facility in North Bend, the food bank has hired a new executive director and is in the process of hiring a new operations manager.
Former coordinator Gail Gergasko had assumed each of those positions the last five years, before deciding to take on a more limited role. Because her departure coincides with the fact that the food bank has experienced an increased need of 50 percent the last six months, the food bank decided to split the position into two.
Food bank coordinator honored as Citizen of the Year
January 27, 2009
North Bend Mayor Ken Hearing presented the Citizen of the Year award to Gail Gergasko at the Jan. 20 City Council meeting.
Gergasko is the coordinator of the Mt. Si Helping Hands Food Bank.
Hearing cited Gergasko’s efforts to expand the food bank from 950 to 1,450 square feet as one of the reasons she was chosen as Citizen of the Year. The effort began in 2007. Gergasko helped to raise $90,000 for the expansion project. She also worked with an audio-visual class at Mt. Si High School to create a video to promote the food bank expansion. Read more
Valley drives garner a lot of support
December 26, 2008
When called upon, Snoqualmie Valley stepped up to the plate, hitting home runs for toy drives, food banks and coat collections for those in need this winter.
Donna Padilla, the North Bend organizer of Baker’s Angels, added seven new bakers to her fold after locals recently learned about her team of kitchen wizards that baked treats for wounded soldiers.
Mount Si High School students launch a final push in their Foodball drive Dec. 13, asking shoppers at North Bend Safeway to “fill the truck” with holiday contributions of food and cash for the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank, two food banks at Fall City churches and the Encompass Respectful Giving campaign. Above, Dylan Glaser hefts a sack of food to the arms of Austen Bolves, while (from left) Karly Thompson, Brett Duncan, Savannah Maddux, Ben Olson, Brielle Buhner, Molly Meyers and Melanie Jenckes wait with other foodstuffs to load.
