With the holiday season in full swing, it’s hard to ignore that more people than ever have to make do with less.
Many food banks and other service organizations in Snohomish and Island counties — and the communities they rely on for donations — are having to step up to meet that need.
The Volunteers of America Everett Food Bank is facing a shortage of sponsors for its annual Holiday Basket program, said Phil Smith, CEO of Volunteers of America Western Washington.
More than 1,600 people requested a Christmas basket this year, but only about 1,100 are covered so far.
“It’s a tough time, when you are having to use the food bank and you have Thanksgiving and Christmas in the midst of it, and everybody else is having a festive time,” he said.
Sponsoring a holiday basket is an annual tradition for some families, Smith said. The baskets typically contain food for a whole family’s holiday meal. The sponsors often throw in candy or gifts for kids.
The Everett Food Bank serves about 180 families daily. If you do the math, that’s about 600 people, Smith said. And they are not the same 600 people every day or even every week, because families can only come to the food bank about once a month, he said.
Many of the food banks that Volunteers of America works with through its food distribution center also are scrambling to feed a growing number of people this year.
The Snohomish Community Food Bank has been serving 250 to 270 people per week this fall, compared with 160 to 170 at the same time last year, Director Elizabeth Grant said.
Many recent clients are those whose unemployment has run out, she said.
Fortunately, donations keep coming as well.
“It’s just because of the incredible generosity of people in Snohomish that we can do this,” Grant said. “Hopefully, we are setting a new standard.”
The food bank opened its doors Wednesday to serve people who couldn’t get their Thanksgiving supplies on Tuesday because of the snowstorm. Volunteers had 120 pounds of food to give out to each family.
There were turkeys, pie, oatmeal, coffee and tea, apples, 4-pound bags of flour and sugar, potatoes and yams, chocolate, spinach, cranberry sauce, green beans, soup, canned pumpkin, olives, juice and more to choose from.
The school drives alone brought in more than 12,000 pounds of food in the past few weeks, Grant said.
“This community is keeping right up with our growth,” she said.
People around the county are stepping up to help their neighbors. Everett High School students collected food for several weeks and on Tuesday delivered boxes to more than 100 families, Principal Catherine Matthews said. Each family got several boxes filled with food, enough to last up to two weeks. The students also sent boxes of food to Cocoon House, an organization that serves homeless and at-risk youth.
The South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary Club teamed up with Kamiak High School students on Sunday and delivered 360 baskets to families in the area. That’s the most baskets in the 20 years the club has had the project, said Sheila Countryman-Bean, the club’s spokeswoman.
The families were selected from the Mukilteo School District and Housing Hope. Cocoon House residents also received the baskets, filled with goodies for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452; kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
To sponsor a holiday basket for a needy family through the Volunteers of America, click here or call 425-212-3221.
Click here for Ways to Give, our annual list of ways to help charitable organizations.
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