A much anticipated arrival

Donations successfully bring refrigerated truck to Moses Lake Food Bank

MOSES LAKE — It may have been the best Christmas present they could have hoped for.

Two days before Dec. 25, Moses Lake Food Bank officials got a call from a delivery man dropping off a 2006 GMC with a built-in refrigerator.

"What a Christmas present, man the best one I've ever had," said Peny Archer, the food bank's assistant executive director.

The food bank had been driving for the new truck since May, when a law went into effect requiring the agency to transport all perishable goods in a refrigerated vehicle. Archer and food bank executive director Linda Finlay did not want to risk losing donations over the lack of a truck as approximately 80 percent of its donations are frozen.

It took several months, but a number of community and state sources helped raise the $58,000 needed to order the truck.

"It's just, it's almost like it is a dream," Finlay said. "It truly is."

Just days after it arrived in their driveway, the truck has already been put to good use by volunteers. Archer without hesitation Wednesday recited the 586.4 miles the food bank has put on the odometer. The temperature inside the cargo hold, Archer said: 26 degrees.

"We've already taken it to pick up food half a dozen times already," Archer said. "She's already been around the county."

In addition to its cooling ability, the truck increases storage for the food bank from two to six pallets of food. The increased storage is a help for the agency, which serves as a lead agency for about 10 other food banks across Grant, Adams and Lincoln counties.

In appreciation of all those who donated, Finlay said the food bank plans to put its own logo on the side of the truck along with the names of all the donors who gave to the effort. Some of those donors came by Wednesday to have a look at the area's coolest method of transportation.

Carl Barr's Moses Lake Noon Rotary was one of those donors, and said the need for the project made it one for his club to support.

"It's impressive," Barr said of the food bank's operation.

Basic American Foods already donates some of its products to the food bank from time to time, and representative Gary Park said their truck donation worked well with the company's corporate giving program.

"This project fit us perfectly," Park said. "We are very pleased to be involved."

Some at the food bank joked on the year of the agency's five-decade anniversary that it took 50 years to get a refrigerated truck, but this truck has been a magnet for food bank volunteers to admire since it arrived. It is a piece of equipment Archer and Finlay credit the entire community for bringing to their doors.

"When you have to have it, you go out and do whatever it takes," Finlay said. "I'm just really proud to be part of this agency and part of this community."