Serving in Othello: National Guard, 2nd Harvest, volunteers team up to meet a need

OTHELLO — It’s not the kind of thing you would expect the National Guard to be mobilized for.

But there they were, 18 members of the Washington Army National Guard and Air National Guard, handing out baskets of food as well as bags of frozen french fries and hash browns in the Othello High School parking lot on Tuesday.

Working with the Eastern Washington food charity 2nd Harvest, the National Guard soldiers and airmen distributed 302 food boxes — complete with milk, fruit, vegetables, rice, noodles and apples — as well as hundreds more bags of frozen potatoes from Ore-Ida and Lamb Weston, according to Senior Master Sgt. Donald Belfils.

“The need is huge,” Belfils said. “We’re helping our neighbors and defending our country.”

Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s happening a lot these days. With the COVID-19 pandemic came the closure of thousands of “non-essential” businesses beginning in late March, and over a million Washingtonians have lost their jobs since.

Yet, farmers are still sowing and reaping, and while many food processors have idled production lines with the closure of restaurants, they still have fields and sheds and warehouses full of things they can’t sell.

And so, the National Guard has been called out. Not to maintain order, but to hand out food.

Belfils, who is typically stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, said he’s been posted to Pasco for the last month helping 2nd Harvest distribute food across Eastern Washington.

“It’s a big need in this community and a lot of communities around here,” he added as he keeps a watchful eye on the soldiers and airmen under his command.

The National Guard was in town at the request of Othello High School Principal Alejandro Vergara, who said students were telling teachers and administrators their families were finding it difficult to get food because parents have lost jobs or seen their hours cut back.

“We saw that and we started to look at ways that we can help our students,” Vergara said as cars snaked through the high school parking lot. “We talked to 2nd Harvest in the Tri-Cities and asked how we can get together and put on this event.”

Vergara said he hopes the school can host the food giveaway twice a month “until things get better.”

For 25-year-old Army National Guard Spc. Jennifer Penaloza, Othello is home. And she was glad to be home.

“I know a lot of people are getting laid off from their jobs, so I know a lot of people do need the services we’re providing,” she said. The National Guard isn’t the only organization helping out. West of Othello, off SR-26, sits a giant but nondescript yellow storage building, home to the Agape Food Bank, which provides food to 400 Othello families as part of the Othello Emergency Food Project.

“There’s a large need,” said Agape founder Earl Lee. “I’m helping anyone who needs food.”

Lee said most of the people he helps are Latino immigrants who aren’t able to get any of the relief money Congress approved since the novel coronavirus pandemic began.

“They don’t have nobody who helps them and nobody who cares,” Lee said.

A former general contractor who said he one day heard a call from God to start a ministry and help the poor and the outcast, Lee said money and food donations aren’t a problem. But finding volunteers willing to help pack food boxes and trucks and send them on their way is another matter, he said.

“No one wants to help with the work,” Lee explained. “I can always use help with the work.”

And that’s something that Belfils, who can command soldiers and airmen, can relate to.

“2nd Harvest needs more help,” he said. “If anybody wants to volunteer, they need your help.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.