Organizers from both food banks agree: The important thing is to provide food for the needy people in the Snoqualmie Valley.
Unfortunately, things will be confusing for a week or two for those who need food, those who donate and those who volunteer.
The newly-formed Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank opens Feb. 5 at the North Bend Community Church. The Mt. Si Food Bank moved out of the same space this week. The Mt. Si Food Bank is looking for a new home.
Both groups identified the same reason for the split — religious affiliation. The old food bank operated under the auspices of the Sammamish Valley Ministerial Association. The new food bank will be a secular non-profit.
“The food bank did not want to be beholden to the SMVA,” said Mark Griffith, vice president of the new food bank board and pastor at the Mt. Si Lutheran Church in North Bend.
The old food bank owned, and took with them, the shelves, the freezers, the walk-in cooler, and all the supplies. The new food bank is starting with empty space.
“The important part of all this is serving the people in need,” said Heidi Dukich, executive director of the new food bank. “This is about how can we best serve our community, to help people stay healthy and thrive.”
Marilyn Evlitz, who has been executive director of the Mt. Si Food Bank since Nov. 15, agreed.
“We’re here to serve people,” she said. “These people need to be fed.”
The development of the new food bank began last fall when Dukich, who is the former executive director of the old food bank, and a number of other volunteers, resigned.
According to Griffith and others, the food bank board at that time hoped to separate from the ministerial association and become a separate nonprofit.
Charlie Salmon of the ministerial association said they wanted to keep operating the food bank to serve the community.
The ministerial association lists 12 area churches as participants. The officers are pastors from the Snoqualmie Nazarene, Church on the Ridge and New Life Christian Center.
Charlie Salmon, pastor of the Church on the Ridge, in a telephone conversation on Jan. 27, said the split came down to religion.
“It came down to remaining a faith-based organization or a secular non-profit,” he said. “We didn’t feel it was prudent for us to become a secular non-profit.”
Griffith said that was one of the problems: The non-profit status was conferred on the ministerial association and the old food bank was part of it, despite the separate name.
That means the money the food bank supporters raised belonged to the ministerial association, not the food bank.
The new food bank organizers decided to take religion out of the equation and form a separate and independent non-profit.
The group has filed the appropriate paperwork with both the state and the federal government, seeking 501(c)(3) status.
Both Dukich and Griffith added that they need help from the public, too.
The walk-in cooler, freezers and other supplies that have been part of the site at North Bend Community Church will be put into storage by the old food bank until it finds a new home.
Donor lists, even though Dukich considers many of the regular donors her friends, also belong to the old food bank.
None of those handicaps worry Dukich.
Dukich said volunteers have been searching for refrigerators and freezers so they can set up the new food bank. They’ll be ready to hand out food Feb. 5.
She knows how the operation should be set up and run – she started volunteering at the old food bank in 2006, served as manager from 2009-2010 and executive director from 2010-2013. Former Mt. Si Food Bank operations manager, Krista Holmberg, is also a staff member with the new group.
In an email about the new food bank, Dukich said, “All funds donated to SVFB (new food bank) will be used to support our mission of providing food and resources to our neighbors.”
Evlitz, who is the wife of the pastor at Mountain View Assembly of God, agreed to help at the old food bank for three months.
“I’m a bookkeeper,” she said. “But I was willing to help.”
Since she has been there, Evlitz said things have been in turmoil. But she insists the old bank is not closing permanently.
“We’re going to relocate,” she said. “We are not closing our doors.”
She has been heartened by the volunteers who have been helping since she arrived.
She was touched when people who gave her their phone numbers as they finished their shifts Jan. 22.
“They told me to call them when we’re back up and running,” she said.
It all comes down to doing what’s right, she said.
“I’m a grandmother,” Evlitz said. “I don’t want a little child’s tummy to be empty.”
Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank
Open 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each Wednesday
122 E. Third St., North Bend
Sherry Grindeland can be reached at [email protected] or 425-392-6434 ext. 246.
Filed Under Local News