Helping out for the holidays
Photos by Aimee Hornberger/Columbia Basin Herald<br>Julia Page, left, and Brook Fike, students at Garden Heights Elementary, help with efforts to gather food for the Kiwanis food drive last week.
Kiwanis holds annual holiday food drive
MOSES LAKE —The temperatures this winter in the Basin are close to setting a record low that hasn't been seen in almost 15 years.
That means higher heating bills for everyone, including the 1,400 needy families who use the Moses Lake Food Bank each month.
People don't have a choice about paying their heating or rent bills, but they do have a choice where they get their food, said Moses Lake Food Bank project manager Peny Archer.
On Friday morning, Archer was counting on additional food donations as Moses Lake Kiwanis members set out to each of the schools in the Moses Lake School District to collect donations for the annual holiday food drive.
"I brought a really big bag of noodles," said Garden Heights Elementary second-grader Sara Quade.
Students in the Moses Lake School District are competing to see which class brings in the most food.
All the donations will be given to the Moses Lake Food Bank.
Grant County energy services specialist Frank Majer said temperatures have been between 5 and 9 degrees lower than at this time last year, with average daily temperatures at 21 degrees for the month of December.
That can run heating bills 15 to 20 percent higher depending on how much heat a household uses, he added.
Last year's food drive raised 10 tons of food. Food items in short supply at the food bank are baby formula and meat.
"We know for the next three months especially, it's not like it's gonna get better, it's gonna get colder," Archer said.
Initially, Kiwanis collected the food themselves; since the 1980s they have been partnering with the school district and food bank.
"I am thankful that I live in Moses Lake because Moses Lake is so supportive of us," Archer said.