Local food banks need donations year-round
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Louis Raap, Ephrata, solicits donations for the Ephrata Food Bank as part of a Lutheran charitable project. Food banks will continue to need donations after Christmas, operators say.
MOSES LAKE — Christmas, along with many other things, is a season when charity goes into overdrive. But Christmas is over, the New Year is approaching, and then it’s January and then people start thinking of spring.
But the need for good works and donations is still out there. “After the holidays are over, the need doesn’t stop,” said Peny Archer, director of the Moses Lake Food Bank. The food bank will reopen Tuesday, and volunteers will be restocking the shelves. “There’s always next week. There’s always next month. The search for food never stops.”
The Ephrata Food Bank gets a lot of donations over the Christmas season, said director Mike Donovan. “The Christmas season, everybody is in the mood.”
The food donated in December helps fill the food bank’s shelves through January, he said. “But people have a tendency to forget about us during February and March.”
The Moses Lake Food Bank receives relatively fewer donations in January, Archer said. That comes at a time when donations are needed, possibly even more than they are in December, she said.
Donovan said food bank customers still need food in January, “more so than they do in December, quite frankly.”
Children are home over Christmas vacation, so families are cooking more meals. At the same time heating bills are higher from December to February, so families have less money to spend on food. Some kids are home during vacation or after school while their parents are working. “Things that are kid-friendly, are easy to prepare, are always needed at this time,” Archer said.
Food bank operators have gotten very good at getting the maximum benefit from monetary donations, she said. But all food banks will take donations of food, and in winter people gravitate to “hearty food. And by hearty I’m talking warm,” soups and stews, potatoes and other root vegetables.
The cold weather means people need more protein, foods like meat and peanut butter. “Peanut butter is a good source of protein. Plus kids like it.” Fresh fruits and vegetables are welcome in winter, but they’re also expensive in winter, Archer said.
And the need for a helping hand can come anytime, winter or summer, Archer said. One bad year – an accident, an unexpected illness – “and that can make it from OK to not OK in a split second.”