MUKILTEO — Dozens of students and Rotary Club members turned out Sunday morning to bring Thanksgiving Day dinners to families who can’t afford to buy their own.
The event provides meals to more than 360 families, mostly in South Everett, said Sean Straub, a South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary Club member.
“It is humbling to see the need,” he said.
He recalled one family with several kids and almost no furniture.
A Thanksgiving Day dinner is a luxury they can’t afford, he said.
The club buys the food at cost from QFC, he said.
Club members and students packed the holiday meals into boxes behind the QFC on Mukilteo Speedway. The boxes were then hand delivered by club members to the families.
The families sign up through the Mukilteo School District.
It was cold and sunny when Kat Anderson, a senior at Kamiak High School, showed up at 7:30 a.m. to pack up meals.
That was better than last year when it was cold and raining, she said.
Twenty high school students from Kamiak in Mukilteo and Cascade in Everett boxed dinners on Sunday.
It was a chance to help the community, said Anderson, who is president of Kamiak’s Associated Student Body.
“Some of the students at Kamiak are the ones actually receiving the baskets,” she said.
South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary has been delivering meals for 20 years, said Straub, who has participated every year.
Back then, they dropped off about 50 meals.
“Each year, it seems to grow a little bit,” he said.
Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, estimates that 89,520 people in Snohomish County experienced food insecurity in 2013, meaning that at some point during the year, they did not have enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
In recent years, South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary has given away about $12,000 worth of food. Half of the money has come from Rotary Club members, while the rest has been raised at the club’s annual auction.
This year, the club asked the local community to contribute through a new website, www.givethanksgivingdinner.org. People want to help, especially around the holidays, he said.
Raising outside contributions for Thanksgiving Day dinners lets club members do more the rest of the year. For example, South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary donates about 160 pounds of food to Rotary Harvest each time a speaker addresses the club’s weekly meeting.
“The need exists throughout the year,” Straub said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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