Soroptimists group provides dinners to families

Moses Lake chapter gives a hand-up

MOSES LAKE — There's a reason Moses Lake families receiving Soroptimists International's food baskets find milk with their Thanksgiving turkey.

According to club member and project co-chair Faye Maslen, the club always tries to take note of what's working and what could be improved.

One year, after some extra funding meant the club could include a gallon of milk, a club member overheard a child in one of the recipient families run back to his mother.

"(He) went running back to his mommy, all excited. 'Oh, Mommy, Mommy! Now we can have milk for our cereal!'" Maslen said. "That kind of story happens over and over … We decided that that's an absolute part, so every box gets a gallon of milk."

This year, members of Soroptimist International of Moses Lake gathered in a rented vacant building Monday morning, a space they'd occupied for the last two weeks, to ensure boxes containing Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings got to their destination.

Maslen estimated the organization has been offering the food basket project for over 25 years. The primary purpose of the organization is to help women and children, she noted.

Names of the families receiving the baskets come through the school system, Maslen said, with the free and reduced lunch program as an indicator, as well as New Hope, Department of Social and Health Services, Children's Protective Services and maternity support services at Moses Lake Community Health.

"What we're trying to do is give them a hand-up, not a hand-out," she said. "That's what we've always done, we're trying to give them a hand-tup, a little boost, a little bit of help here."

Maslen said 150 families receive 450 boxes. Each family receives three boxes, the last box loaded with such items as a gallon of milk, eggs, two loaves of bread and a frozen turkey.

Maslen estimated the Soroptimist committee members and volunteers moved more than 150 pounds of margarine, 400 loaves of bread and 2,100 canned vegetables. Other food items making their way into the boxes to be delivered around area schools included cranberry sauce, black olives, canned corn, green beans, scalloped and fresh potatoes.

"Everything a family would need," Maslen said.

In the case of some smaller families, there's enough to carry over for several days, she added.

The project, which Maslen called a major job, drew a good turn-out, she noted. Twenty-five people helped load the canned and unperishable commodities into boxes on Saturday, and a crew was hard at work loading the third box with the refrigerated or frozen items.

"We've got it down to a science," project co-chair Debbie Doran-Martinez said.

The volunteers finished delivering the food by 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Maslen said the group served more than 800 individuals last year, and she expected to serve the same or more this year.

"We find there are definite needs in the community, and it's one of the ways we can meet those needs," she said. "This is real close to our hearts, because whenever you've got a hungry child or a hungry family out there, you want to do what you can to help them out."