Food bank continues truck quest
Moses Lake Food Bank volunteer Stan Stratton stands between two bins of potatoes Monday. The food bank received more than 21,000 pounds of potatoes last week from Central Towing, following a recent tractor trailer accident. The food bank is also closer to its $50,000 goal for purchase of a refrigerated truck, following a $5,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Moses Lake Sunrise this week.<br>Brad W. Gary/Columbia Basin Herald
Sunrise Rotary donation brings food bank closer to goal
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Food Bank is continuing to raise money for a new refrigerated truck, and a donation from one local group is inching the community organization closer to its $50,000 goal.
The food bank had not yet officially been notified of the donation Monday, but Executive Director Linda Finlay was excited to learn that the Moses Lake Rotary Sunrise had donated $5,000 to their cause.
"That's awesome," Finlay said of the donation.
This most recent donation, along with the anticipated donation from musical performances later this week, will help the food bank reach its donation goal for a new refrigerated truck.
Sunrise Rotary President Scott Campbell said he felt there was a clear community need for the truck.
"It provides a service to a lot of people," Campbell said, "and we wanted to support it so they could continue to do their work."
The food bank began raising money for the truck after it found out about a new state code that requires perishable food to be transported in refrigerated vehicles. Finlay said approximately 80 percent of its donated food is frozen, and she said the food bank didn't want to lose donors over the absence of the truck.
The food bank serves 1,400 families a month, and has approximately 1.3 million pounds of food donated every year. The Moses Lake Food Bank is also a lead agency for about 10 other food banks in Grant, Adams and Lincoln counties that would also be impacted if the food bank isn't able to achieve its donation goal for the truck.
Currently the food bank uses two trucks that aren't refrigerated to haul food. but Moses Lake Food Bank Assistant Executive Director Peny Archer said the food bank has a refrigerated truck in mind.
"We know which truck we want," Archer said, "all we need is the money to get it."
The $5,000 Sunrise Rotary donation is the most recent in a list of donations for the truck. Finlay said other sizable donations have also come from the Paul Lauzier Foundation, Basic American Foods, Chemi-Con, the Moses Lake Lioness Club, Skillsource and the Moses Lake Ministerial Association.
Sunrise Rotary donates to a number of local and international organizations, and Campbell said he hopes his group's donation spurs others to help the food bank achieve its goal. Campbell said the idea to donate was generated by another of the group's 23 members.
Mavis Gaither is the Sunrise Rotary member who thought the club could help by donating the money, and said the club should be doing everything it can to help the people and the community. She added that the club felt the food bank's need for a refrigerated truck was also a great need for the community.
As of Friday, the food bank had raised approximately $25,000 and were also expecting additional funding from the state for the truck. Archer said Monday that the food bank needed approximately $15,000 to reach its goal.
"That'd be a third of what we have left," Archer said of the Sunrise Rotary donation, "that'd be tremendous."
It will take two months to get the truck to the food bank once its ordered, and Finlay said they hope to order the vehicle by Oct. 1.