Othello Food Bank requests county funds

OTHELLO – Jose Garza, lead facilities director at the Othello Food Bank, went before the Adams County Board of Commissioners during last Wednesday’s meeting to workshop potential options for funding and support for the food bank and its programs.

“Without funds, you can’t operate, you can’t move, you can’t buy equipment,” said Garza, who joined the Othello Food Bank in August 2022.

During the meeting, Garza outlined several of the food bank’s most pressing needs. The facilities need some form of large scale refrigeration to cut down on food waste and to stock better quality food, an expanded shed to increase storage space and money to hire more staff. Currently, Garza is the only paid employee – the other workers are all volunteers.

“Staffing is very critical… We need drivers, we need warehousers, we need people doing HR, payroll, I mean, we need to be fully staffed,” said Garza.

Garza is only employed in a part time position, he said, but in actuality works full-time to manage the food bank.

The Othello Food Bank, which is open three times a week, also partners with smaller cities near Othello to help get food to lower-income communities. Jared Potts, clerk for the town of Hatton, and Dory Wilson, a citizen of Lind, also spoke during the commissioners meeting about their partnership with Garza and their respective towns’ needs.

“He’s helping out, you know, over 90% of our community,” said Potts on food boxes that Garza and the food bank deliver to Hatton to meet families’ food needs. “A lot of these families don’t have the opportunity to drive to Moses Lake or Tri-Cities or any of the larger food banks, or even to Othello.”

Wednesday’s meeting was the first time Garza had come to the commissioners to request funding. According to Garza, the food bank was hoping to get $1 million in funds from We Feed Washington, a state program that provides grant money for larger projects. However, the program is a reimbursement grant, meaning the food bank would have to spend $1 million upfront and would not be reimbursed by the state for about two months.

“The issue that we have with that is that we don’t have the capital or the line of credit,” said Garza. “We can’t even apply for the grant as of now.”

Garza also explained that new housing and population growth in Othello could lead to concerns for the food bank, another reason they need funding and support from the county.

“We’re already at our peak of what we can do to provide service with the people that we have right now,” said Garza. “So once those houses are built and those people are in town we’re going to have a huge crisis in the future, so I’m hoping to avoid that before that happens.”

Commissioners discussed several options in response to the food bank’s situation, including the possibility of providing support from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the county is distributing to community organizations on an application basis. The commissioners also discussed providing the food bank surplus equipment from county facilities.

Commissioner Jay R. Weise expressed that the Board of Commissioners was very confident they would be able to provide some funding for the food bank in addition to manpower and equipment, especially with Garza in charge.

“It’s been very refreshing to have Jose on,” said Weise. “He’s the perfect candidate to run an operation like that because he is all over it.”

Despite the various concerns and needs facing the Othello Food Bank and its partners across Adams County, Garza said he remains optimistic about its future.

“The food bank is here to stay and I’m here to stay,” said Garza. “We’re going to make it as big as we can because the need is going to grow and it’s going to keep on growing.”

Gabriel Davis can be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.