Area students decorate for food bank donation

MOSES LAKE - Almost 200 decorated Halloween pumpkins were delivered to the Moses Lake food bank this week.

High school students teamed with the Knolls Vista third-graders to paint the pumpkins for kids visiting the Moses Lake Food Bank to take home.

Visitors to the food bank can choose their favorite pumpkin until Thursday, but Peny Archer at the Moses Lake Food Bank says they are going out fast.

"The kids are just tickled because pumpkins are really expensive," Archer says. "Moses Lake is really caring and during the holidays they're still so willing to dig deep, even if they themselves are struggling."

The food bank helps more than 1,800 families each month, according to Archer. The food bank itself relies on funding and donations based on the weight of the food they are able to distribute in Central Washington.

Now in the program's eighth year, Don Key of Skillsource Moses Lake says he originally coordinated the event with grocery stores, but quickly discovered that the stores couldn't get enough pumpkins.

For the past two years, Qualls Ag Labs in Ephrata donated the pumpkins and grows more than 4,000 pumpkins for charity every year.

Key says students painted rather than carved the pumpkins so they could still be used for food. Of more than 30 regular volunteers, Key says the holidays always bring out more people willing to help.

"Getting community service to be a regular part of students' lives, they can be part of something bigger than themselves," Key said.

The Moses Lake Food Bank is located at 1075 W. Marina Dr. in Moses Lake.

For more information, call 509-765-8101.