EVERETT — The city of Arlington announced in its weekly newsletter Friday that the city’s Volunteers of America Distribution Center received a 32,000-pound food donation, which will be distributed to food banks across Snohomish County.
The Volunteers of America Western Washington food distribution center in Arlington received the donation on Feb. 6 from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to VOA Western Washington Vice President of Development Jessica Moore.
It consists of shelf-stable and dried goods that will provide more than 26,000 meals for food banks, including Everett Community Food Bank, Casino Road Food Pantries and the Sultan Community Food Bank, Moore said in an email.
All Volunteers of America-led food banks have seen increased demand, Moore said. For example, the Everett Community Food Bank saw a 31% increase in people served last year, from 88,577 in 2024 to 116,280 in 2025.
The Arlington Community Food Bank will also receive a portion of the donation, it said in the newsletter. The church also recently donated a “truckload of milk and dairy products,” it said.
Large-scale donations are not unusual from the church, Moore said. Their partnership with both Volunteers of America Western Washington and the Snohomish County Food Bank Coalition is longstanding, “rooted in a shared commitment to addressing hunger,” she said.
“LDS makes generous contributions at least annually, and often multiple times a year,” Moore said.
The donation could not have come at a better time, Moore said in a release to The Herald.
“With grocery prices continuing to rise, food banks across the county are seeing more neighbors turning to us for help. Gifts like this make it possible for our food banks to continue meeting the growing need in our communities,” she said.
Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay
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