Monroe food bank work is a joy and a worry

MONROE — At a food bank that isn’t banking as much food as it needs, volunteer Paul Challancin is waiting for manna from heaven.

Challancin, 63, wears many hats at the Sky Valley Food Bank. He sits on the board of directors, advises food bank director Julie Morris on purchasing, helps finalize the operating budget and works as the warehouse manager.

If you were to ask him, the most important job he does is making sure that food gets to the hungry — even when there isn’t that much food to go around.

As he stood in the bustling warehouse, his gaze fell on shelves full of canned soup and spaghetti sauce, a veritable ­cornucopia of food that would be gone within the week.

It’s up to Challancin and his fellow cadre of volunteers to make what they have work.

Challancin has lived in the Sky Valley area since 1976 and has donated to the food bank since 1998. One day while waiting for the food bank to open so he could drop off a check, he sat in his vehicle and watched as people lined up outside waiting to get in.

“It was at the right time in my life since my career was winding down. Watching those people wait outside made me want to get out there and volunteer,” Challancin said.

As the warehouse manager, he monitors the amount of food coming in and going out, and with the current economic turmoil his part-time volunteer job has almost become full time.

Challancin has watched the number of people served double since January, as well as food costs. The cross-­section of people who come to the food bank goes beyond the typical stereotypes someone might have, he said: construction workers, Boeing employees, landscapers, people who have been laid off or had their hours reduced and are desperate to make ends meet.

As the number of food bank clients continue to rise, so has the price of food.

“A pallet of potatoes used to go for $200 in January, but now it’s up to $400. It’s tough watching the number of clients going up,” Challancin said. “We’re in a situation where we are struggling to maintain our food supply.”

The Sky Valley Food Bank isn’t in jeopardy of closing its doors, but may have to limit the amount of food it distributes to clients.

To Challancin, that’s just as bad.

Despite the current difficulties, Challancin was still upbeat as he toured the warehouse, pointing out the various amenities the volunteer staff are able to give to their clients. Pallets of frozen turkeys sit in freezers with signs that read “for holidays only,” along with a locked storeroom that holds a treasure trove of presents for children at Christmas.

Challancin is a reluctant Santa Claus, so the duty of playing St. Nick is given to another volunteer. Still, he makes sure gifts continue to make their way into the storeroom for Christmas.

“Paul is one of the most dependable people I know,” Morris said. “I know people who have paid jobs and are not nearly as dependable as he is.”

Morris is Challancin’s biggest fan and considers him a mentor. The two regularly meet to think of new ways to maintain the food bank’s current level of giving.

So far, its getting harder and harder to make ends meet.

“I’m a volunteer, as is everyone here in the warehouse, but the costs keep climbing,” Challancin said. “Donations pick up around the holidays and that is where we make the bulk of our stores for the year, but right now we’re scraping by.”

Challancin said that while food drives and donations are great and nothing goes to waste, the best way for people to donate is to give monetarily. Using an area food bank resource called Northwest Harvest, Challancin is able to buy three times as much food as he could at a supermarket.

But that’s a worry for another day as he bent over and helped move large bags of rice to a table where other volunteers sorted the grains into small plastic bags.

“The physicality of the job is the hardest part for me,” Challancin said. “But knowing that you are helping someone who needs it makes the sore knees and back all worthwhile.”

Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.