PORT ANGELES — Food banks across Clallam County will receive a total of about 25,000 pounds of chicken and ground beef, thanks to funding provided by the state Department of Agriculture.
The meat will be distributed between the Port Angeles Food Bank, the Sequim Food Bank, the Forks Food Bank, the New Hope Food Bank and the Salvation Army, Port Angeles Food Bank Executive Director Emily Dexter said.
Some will probably be sent to the Serenity House, The Answer for Youth (TAFY), the Makah Tribe, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Dexter added.
Each location will get a portion of the meat based on how many households the food bank usually serves, Dexter said.
Half of the order will be chicken and half will be ground beef. Dexter said she is hoping to get the food soon, although they had to postpone the delivery because of freezer space.
“We want to get it here soon so people can have it in November,” she said.
Once it arrives, Dexter said the meat will probably last about two to three months.
“It will go quicker than we think,” she added.
Anybody in the county can go pick up some of the meat, as there are no income requirements for any of the Clallam County food banks.
The meat purchase is funded through a $48,937.43 grant that the state Department of Agriculture (WSDA) gave to Clallam County as part of the emergency food assistance program (TEFAP).
The county then determined it would be best to pass the entire grant on to the Port Angeles Food Bank, which would make the purchase and help distribute the meat.
“They know how to do it best, let’s let them do it,” county analyst Angi Klahn told the county commissioners during an October work session.
The Port Angeles Food Bank will use 10 percent of the funds for administrative costs, and 90 percent will go directly to the purchase of the food.
The food bank will purchase the meat through The Weigelt Company, the same one it uses to get eggs and milk, Dexter said.
The Weigelt Company is essentially a middleman that coordinates large purchases from Washington farms, Dexter said, so the food banks won’t be purchasing directly from farms.
“We do need to maximize the dollar,” she said.
Dexter said the meat will help provide customers with protein, something the food bank aims to have on hand at all times.
Dexter also said having small roaster chickens available can help provide customers with an option for the upcoming holidays.
“Chickens can act like turkeys for a small family of four, or for a single-person household,” she said.
The state’s goal in providing the funding was to urge county officials and hunger relief agencies to continue to work together post-pandemic, Dexter said.
“It is definitely opening the door to conversations that we were going to be starting to have anyway,” she said.
One will be a discussion about consistent county or city funding for food banks, which doesn’t currently exist.
Dexter said food bank visits across the county have increased by 70 percent over the last three years, with 30 percent of residents getting their food from food banks on a regular basis.
At the same time, Dexter said food and monetary donations for food banks are down by 40 percent across the whole state.
“We enter into sort of a perfect storm,” she said.
Although municipalities are facing the same funding problems, Dexter said food banks “have constituents that are relying on food banks for food, and establishing a relationship with our county and our municipalities to work towards financial support and a financial relationship would be really beneficial to our county.”
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
