Marysville Food Bank returns to where it all began

Published 12:01 pm Thursday, September 25, 2008

A new 5,600-square-foot headquarters is nearly ready for the Marysville Community Food Bank, but the location isn’t new. After two moves during its 34 years, the food bank is returning to its original site at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, on 88th Street NE at State Avenue.

At first, there was no building at all. Parishioner JoAnn Mulligan and a friend, parishioner Yvonne Delisle, began responding to a need to feed hungry residents in the area by delivering food in Mulligan’s car. Even in a prosperous community, the need became so great by 1977 that instead of driving to people’s homes, they asked those in need to come to the parish rectory each week.

Then, a community outreach committee at the parish began gathering donations to buy more food. Soon, as word spread, Volunteers of America asked Mulligan to start an official community food bank with the help of 12 other churches in the area.

“We always bought enough food for nine meals per person to keep them going,” Mulligan said. “It was supposed to be a temporarily provision but many families returned regularly for help. Our credo was to never turn anyone away. If we ran out of supplies we’d refer people to other sources whenever we could.”

Still the needs grew. By 1985, the food bank had outgrown the rectory, where supplies were stored in refrigerators, freezers and spare rooms in the old house that had become the rectory — the same old house that previously had been the Mulligan family’s farmhouse in north Marysville. After her husband Jim’s family sold the property to the Seattle Archdiocese, the new St. Mary’s church and hall was built there in 1968.

After moving to larger quarters in downtown Marysville, the food bank secured a grant to build a 3,400-square-foot facility adjacent to the nearby YMCA in 1998. After a decade at that site,the food bank secured another grant to build the new facility at St. Mary’s. Today, 17 area churches participate in providing funds and hundreds of volunteers to meet the needs of hungry families. In 2007, food was provided for 39,697 individuals and 11,988 households.

By next Janaury, the new facility will be ready to carry on in 2009, this time with part-time director Joyce Zeigen heading the growing community service program.

Zeigen faces more challenges than simply providing food to a growing number of families, although that alone is challenge enough. She’s seeing many volunteers growing older and need many younger volunteers to help continue the community service. Also, she needs some extra cash donatiions beyond money for food purchases.

The new building will cost around $920,000 due to inflation driving up the price of construction before it could be finished, leaving the food bank nearly $200,000 short of its goal. Much of that financial problem was solved in a surprising donation of $94,579 from the estate of Ron Grant, a long-time volunteer at the food bank. That generosity eased the immediate challenge of extra fund raising for the building, she said. With extra donations from the community, including the Marysville Noon Rotary Club Fund, she said the balance needed for the building is still at $40,000 and hopes supporters will continue to contribute for the building costs.

To contribute to the building fund, help purchase food supplies or volunteer to help, visit www.marysvillecommunityfb.com for more information.