Navy recruiters help load up Thanksgiving meals

MOSES LAKE - Six central Washington Navy recruiters flexed their muscles Friday morning to help out the Moses Lake Food Bank.

Each year, the food bank prepares boxes filled with food for Thanksgiving dinner for their clients, said Scott Kilpatrick, the food bank's financial manager.

This year's boxes include sweet potatoes, corn, fruit, chicken broth, stuffing and pudding. When families pick up the boxes, they'll also be given a loaf of bread, an onion and a turkey. Larger families will be given additional potatoes, said Kilpatrick.

The food bank expects at least 1,700 families today through Wednesday, he said.

The food bank put together 1,300 boxes Friday and anticipated receiving 400 sacks of food from Samaritan Hospital's turkey drive, he said.

Boxes were donated by International Paper and fruit was donated by Northwest Harvest, said Kilpatrick. REC Silicon employees donated 250 turkeys this year and the Seventh Day Adventist Church gave turkeys and 200 boxes of food, he said.

"We can only do this with the support of the community," said Kilpatrick.

The recruiters contacted the food bank "to help out people around the community we work in," said Temple Watkins, a Navy recruiter, originally from Los Angeles now stationed in the Tri-Cities.

The other recruiters are Charles Euton in Wenatchee; Trista Whitehead in Yakima, originally from Othello; Brian Brannam in Yakima, originally from Boise; Bevan Aqueparaz in Walla Walla, originally from Las Vegas, and Ryan Epfundheller in Moses Lake.

"I think it's great that we can come out and show our Navy presence in local communities and help out the needy that don't have what we get every day," said Brannam.