111The five Jefferson County food banks are preparing for their peak season in an economy that forces more of their customers to ask for help with their holiday meals.
“Our food banks are getting a lot more people,” said Randy Swenson, Olympic Community Action Programs purchasing manager.
“We don’t know where they are coming from, but we are seeing a 50 percent increase in clients from last year.”
OlyCAP estimates that a total of 900 families countywide will make use of the food banks for Thanksgiving, up from 600 in 2009.
There are no statistics gathered for November, but Swenson reports an increase in food distributed from 73,000 pounds in October 2009 to 82,000 pounds in October 2010.
Food banks don’t track who is taking advantage of the opportunity to visit once a week and get enough canned and dry goods to feed their family.
They collect only the name and the number of people in the family. There is no screening process conducted or income statement required.
“You just have to come in and say that you need food,” said Port Townsend Food Bank assistant manager Shirley Moss.
“For all we know, a lot of our new clients could be coming to us from Kitsap County, or other locations,” Swenson said.
The Port Townsend Food Bank has met with some good fortune recently.
An additional drive yielded $7,500 and the Kinetic Skulpture Race turned $1,000 of its unexpected profit — any profit being the first in 27 years of the October event — into a surprise donation.
The food bank is also a favorite beneficiary for local charity efforts, such as an Interfaith Service to take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Northwest Maritime Center.
Moss said it is never too much.
“We always need donations because there are so many people who need help,” he said.
“If we get money, it goes into our operating budget, and if we get food it helps us to add variety.”
The idea behind a food bank is that it is a two-way street, open to those who need the food and to those who are able to donate.
Bringing a few cans into the food bank isn’t the best way to help, Moss said.
“It’s better for us if you write a check,” she said.
“We can pool all our funds and buy quantities of what we need and it goes a lot farther.”
This is not to say that canned food drives and other programs are without merit.
Such efforts “get us more exotic interesting foods like canned pineapples that we might not be able to afford,” Moss said.
“It gives us some variety,” she said.
“No one likes to eat the same stuff over and over.”
Food bank clients aren’t getting the same old stuff for Thanksgiving. Their holiday fare is turkey and trimmings.
Fresh produce is still up in the air.
“We won’t know how many vegetables we’ll get until Monday,” Moss said.
Brinnon Food Bank director Judith Eaglestone is seeing a slight but noticeable increase in families served.
She expects to serve around 100 families for Thanksgiving, up from 90 in 2009.
The Brinnon Food Bank sees about 60 families a week, up from last year’s average of 50.
Lapses in documentation could mean that the increase is even greater, she said.
“A lot of people are losing jobs, which contributes to the increase,” she said.
“But there are people who have moved away because they couldn’t find a job, and some clients have died.”
All local food banks are networked together under the OlyCAP umbrella, sharing food and resources through the Port Townsend Food Bank.
All of them accept donations during regular business hours, both food and cash or checks.
A certain percentage of money contributed to individual food banks stays local, Eaglestone said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
