Food Bank serves another 850 homes through Food Bag program

By Matthew Nash • December 21, 2022 1:30 am
Volunteers with Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church, from left, Jadie Henton, Dawn Rowe, Linnea Balkan and Eloise Gatchet load and pack boxes for the Family Holiday Food Bag Distribution program. They helped prepare 850 boxes for Christmas meals.
Volunteers with Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church, from left, Jadie Henton, Dawn Rowe, Linnea Balkan and Eloise Gatchet load and pack boxes for the Family Holiday Food Bag Distribution program. They helped prepare 850 boxes for Christmas meals.

For some efforts it takes a village and in Sequim it takes a community to help distribute food to those in need.

On Dec. 16, various service agencies and groups continued the Family Holiday Food Bag Distribution program at Trinity United Methodist Church and Carrie Blake Community Park.

Following protocols started during the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers pulled up and registered before driving through the park so volunteers could place boxes of hearty Christmas meals for each family inside each vehicle.

Staff with Sequim Food Bank said 100 boxes were delivered to homes as well.

One day prior was a massive preparation day where Sequim Food Bank staff and volunteers with Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church spent more than an hour-and-a-half taping and packing 850 boxes.

For many of them it was part of their Thursday routine. Bill Needham, a church volunteer, said some church volunteers help distribute food on Mondays and others come on Thursdays to pack Weekend Meal Bags for 250 students.

“(You do it) all for people you never see and to make their life just a little better,” Needham said of the meal bag program.

James Whitney, another church volunteer, said he’s been helping in various capacities for about six years.

“You know you’re helping with a real need because it seems to me the people who come to the food bank have a need,” he said.

Whitney said the school meal bags is helping the students and the parents and/or grandparents through a variety of tough scenarios.

Up ahead

Sequim Food Bank, 144 W. Alder St., will be open Dec. 23 and 30 but closed Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. It resumes normal operating hours in 2023: 1-4 p.m. Mondays, and 9 a.m.-noon Fridays and Saturdays.

Executive director Andra Smith said with school out until 2023, the weekend meal bags will be offered on Dec. 23 and 30, and if families have an additional need to stop by or call 360-683-1205.

“The need is still great,” she said.

“In general the last two months of the year are busy for us,” Smith said. “There’s a greater need for food because of additional expenses this time of year. It’s why we continue to offer the Family Holiday Food Bag program.”

Some families only come for the November and December programs in the park, she said, and that’s welcome.

“It’s about community and bringing people together and to connect,” Smith said.

“It’s more than just about food.”

She added that the church members and other volunteers “are an integral part of the Weekend Meal Bag program and operations as a whole.”

To help Sequim Food Bank, make a donation online at sequimfoodbank.org; mail to: “Sequim Food Bank, P.O. Box 1453, Sequim WA, 98382.” Or, drop off a donation with staff at 144 W. Alder St.

For more information, call 360-683-1205.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Merwin Stewart and Sidne Cameron make, tape and stack boxes for Sequim Food Bank on Dec. 15 to be used in Carrie Blake Community Park the next day for Christmas meals. Stewart and Cameron were two of about 20 volunteers from Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Merwin Stewart and Sidne Cameron make, tape and stack boxes for Sequim Food Bank on Dec. 15 to be used in Carrie Blake Community Park the next day for Christmas meals. Stewart and Cameron were two of about 20 volunteers from Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Leslie Bagwell and Mark Pekar carefully stack some of the 850 boxes they and other volunteers with Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church made and filled with food for Christmas meal boxes distributed in Carrie Blake Community Park on Dec. 16.

Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Leslie Bagwell and Mark Pekar carefully stack some of the 850 boxes they and other volunteers with Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church made and filled with food for Christmas meal boxes distributed in Carrie Blake Community Park on Dec. 16.

Volunteers with Seventh-day Adventist Church make and later fill boxes with food for Christmas meal boxes distributed in Carrie Blake Community Park on Dec. 16.

Volunteers with Seventh-day Adventist Church make and later fill boxes with food for Christmas meal boxes distributed in Carrie Blake Community Park on Dec. 16.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Sequim Food Bank volunteers with Seventh-day Adventist Church gather around a heater in-between making and stacking boxes and filling them with hearty meals for Christmas to be distributed at Carrie Blake Community Park.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Sequim Food Bank volunteers with Seventh-day Adventist Church gather around a heater in-between making and stacking boxes and filling them with hearty meals for Christmas to be distributed at Carrie Blake Community Park.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Bill Needham, a volunteer organizer for Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church at Sequim Food Bank, and Chris Torell with Sequim Food Bank pack boxes on Dec. 15 for distribution in Carrie Blake Community Park for Christmas.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Bill Needham, a volunteer organizer for Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church at Sequim Food Bank, and Chris Torell with Sequim Food Bank pack boxes on Dec. 15 for distribution in Carrie Blake Community Park for Christmas.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Volunteer James Whitney stacks finished meal boxes at Sequim Food Bank for the Family Holiday Food Bag Distribution event on Dec. 16 in Carrie Blake Community Park.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Volunteer James Whitney stacks finished meal boxes at Sequim Food Bank for the Family Holiday Food Bag Distribution event on Dec. 16 in Carrie Blake Community Park.