Food banks need donations, especially in unusual year
Jaime Ramirez takes donations to be shorted and shelved at the Moses Lake Food Bank Monday. Food banks throughout the area are looking for donations of money and food as the holiday season in a most unusual year approaches.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
Alicia Murguia (left) and Adeldia Sanchez (right) stuff bags for distribution at the Moses Lake Food Bank. Food banks throughout the region are looking for donations of food and money as the 2020 holiday season approaches.
Brandon Lopez (left) and Danny Close (right) sort food at the Moses Lake Food Bank Monday. Area food banks are looking for donations as the holiday season approaches.
Danny Close checks the weight of food donations at the Moses Lake Food Bank Monday. With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, local food banks are soliciting donations of food and money.
MOSES LAKE — With Halloween in the rear-view mirror and Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching, it’s time to think about those traditional food and toy drives and donations for local food banks – well, wait. This is 2020, and nothing is going as planned.
Traditionally, Moses Lake schools conduct a drive to collect food and money for the Moses Lake Food Bank. Moses Lake Food Bank director Peny Archer said no one knows if the MLSD food drive is among the many traditional events to fall victim to the COVID-19 outbreak. “We haven’t heard a peep about that (the food drive),” Archer said.
There’s a Moses Lake grocery store that’s traditionally a supporter of the food and toy drives, but it’s 2020. “They’re not going to be a big help this year,” Archer said.
“Thanks a lot, COVID,” she added.
The Moses Lake Food Bank is experiencing “somewhat of a drop” in food donations, she said, although it’s too early to tell if that’s an indication of a longer-term trend. The coronavirus pandemic “has been extremely hard on everybody,” Archer said, including the local farmers, ranchers, community residents and businesses that usually donate food and money.
At the same time, food bank usage has increased. At the Othello Food Bank, director Sharon Mobley is thinking about adding a fourth day of operation.
“Last week on Monday we had 109 families,” Mobley said.
It was the custom in Othello to allow food bank patrons to come in and shop, and fill their own cart. But that’s not possible during the pandemic, so people must wait outside.
“Winter is a really busy time for us, and with COVID, we’ve just been so busy already,” Mobley said. Expanding to a fourth day would give patrons another day and reduce the time people have to wait outside in cold weather, Mobley said.
Some people who had jobs in 2019 don’t have them in 2020, Archer said, and some of those now-unemployed people have become patrons of the food bank.
Even with the loss of some of its traditional sources of donations, the Moses Lake Food Bank has been able to keep up with demand. The Washington Department of Agriculture has been an important source of supply. But it’s going to be more difficult to meet the demand when the WSDA distributions end, Archer said.
One tradition will go on as scheduled – the Moses Lake Food Bank will distribute Thanksgiving baskets Nov. 23-25. Drive-thru distribution is scheduled for Nov. 23, Archer said. Whether or not the traditional Thanksgiving meal will be in the baskets is still to be determined.
Moses Lake Food Bank officials also are planning the traditional toy distribution, Operation Friendship. But that may look different too, and it too depends on donations, Archer said.
“Please donate if you’re able,” Archer said.
The Othello Food Bank is encouraging people to donate money or gift cards that can be redeemed at local grocery stores, Mobley said. Donations can be left at the food bank on the days it’s open; currently, that’s Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 2:30 p.m. Or donations can be mailed to Box 157, Othello, WA 99344. Monetary donations also can be dropped off at the Othello branch of Columbia Bank.
The Moses Lake Food Bank accepts donations of food and money year-round, Archer said, as well as donations of toys at Christmas. Money can be donated online at www.mlfood.org, or mailed to P.O. Box 683, Moses Lake, WA 98837. Food and money can be dropped off during food bank operating hours, from 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
