Amid more need, Granite Falls food bank raises $15K with ‘Empty Bowls’

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 15, 2023

GRANITE FALLS — The Granite Falls Community Coalition and Food Bank hosted its first ever fundraiser Saturday. Carol Panagos, president of the board of directors, estimated the Empty Bowls event raised around $15,000, with more money to be counted from a silent auction.

“My heart was just so happy,” Panagos said on Monday. “To see that kind of support for the food bank and our community just filled my heart with joy.”

The Granite Falls Food Bank has seen the demand in the community skyrocket since the pandemic, hiring its first paid staff in 2020.

In 2022, it distributed 310,000 pounds of food to 14,000 people in 4,860 households. Each of those numbers had increased by at least 32% from just the previous year. The estimated value of the food distributed increased by 139%, a reflection of inflation.

From the full grass parking lot outside the Granville Grange, to the warm glow of lights inside with the sound of the crowd and music, the event felt like a reunion. Multiple volunteers said they felt so happy they could cry. The fundraiser was free to attend, with bottomless cups of soup donated by local restaurants. The food bank raised money by a variety of means, including a silent auction and raffles.

The event focused on sales of donated local pottery, mostly bowls, which filled the tables in one large room. What started at a high school in Michigan in 1990 is now a global “grassroots movement” of artists who donate their work to raise money for food-related charities. On Saturday, seven local “crafters & artists,” including students from two high school art classes, donated their creations.

The Granite Falls food bank also manages the Meals ‘til Monday program coordinated by teachers in the Granite Falls Schools District, some of whom work across the parking lot. Any family can sign up for their kid to come home on Fridays with a backpack full of meal and snack items for the weekend.

Access to enough food, particularly healthy food, is just one of many social determinants of health, or the social and economic conditions that affect people’s health risks and outcomes.

Across Snohomish County, one in four people surveyed in 2022 said they struggled to meet basic needs, like food, housing, transportation and safety. About one in 10 people said they worried that they or other household members will not have enough food to eat — an increase over both 2020 and 2021 surveys by the Providence Institute for a Healthier Community.

Jessica Burt, director of community health for the Providence institute, said social and economic factors represent more than half of a person’s health and well-being.

“Access to and ability to afford healthy food, impacts good nutrition needed for our mental and physical well-being,” Burt wrote in an email. “Food insecurity is a health disparity” that needs to be addressed outside of the formal health care system, with equitable opportunities or resources for education and housing, for example, she said.

In and around Granite Falls, anywhere from 7% to 20% of households receive food benefits for low-income families from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as the Basic Food program in Washington. The Granite Falls food bank helps people regardless of income.

Panagos, a retiree, has volunteered at the food bank for the past five or six years, describing it as like a full-time job for her. On Monday she felt “exhausted,” but encouraged by all the support.

“Our operating costs, just like every household, they’ve gone up at the food bank,” Panagos said. “We’re going to be able to continue serving. It’s such a wonderful feeling, just to be a little bit more secure.”

Resources

Check the Granite Falls food bank website or call them to learn about volunteering, donating and receiving food: granitefallscommunitycoalition.org or 360-691-4253

The Department of Social and Health Services’ mobile community services truck will be at the Granite Falls IGA on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone can apply for Basic Food and other programs on-site.

The Providence Institute for a Healthier Community has an online tool to search for local resources, like food banks: pihchub.org/livewell/

Joy Borkholder: 425-339-3430; joy.borkholder@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jlbinvestigates.