SEQUIM — A letter on the Sequim Food Bank door Saturday morning gave volunteer Stephen Rosales the news: Nina Fatherson, executive director for more than 15 years — and a food bank worker for nearly three decades — could no longer work with him.
“It is with great sadness that Bill and I resign our positions with the Sequim Food Bank,” Fatherson, 77, wrote on behalf of herself and her husband, Bill, a longtime volunteer.
“Recently, Stephen Rosales has made mine and my volunteers’ jobs almost impossible and certainly unbearable. To that end, 12 of my longtime volunteers have resigned and now, Bill and I feel we must too,” Fatherson added.
Rosales is the Sequim Food Bank board president who became a volunteer four years ago.
Made many changes
He said Saturday morning that he has made many changes to the operation, in an effort to make it more responsive to Sequim residents’ growing need for help in putting food on their tables.
Last summer, he urged Fatherson to open the pantry one evening a week in addition to its usual Monday and Friday morning shifts; he also wanted to give away larger quantities of food, including gallon jugs of milk and 10-pound bags of potatoes, instead of the smaller sizes handed out in previous years. Then, this fall, the pantry switched from Monday evenings to Saturday mornings.
Rosales said he also has cleaned up and reorganized what was a less-than-efficient operation.
“If asking to be open a third day, being open more hours and giving out more food makes life ‘unbearable,’ then so be it,” he said.
Unnecessary changes
Fatherson, for her part, said Rosales has sought to take over the food bank. He’s been disrespectful to longtime volunteers and made unnecessary changes in a routine that has served the community well, she believes.
“He started changing all the food,” Fatherson said, “and he had board members coming in while we were working. They didn’t know how we functioned. And Stephen doesn’t either. He hasn’t been there every day for 28 years,” as Fatherson had, first as a volunteer and then as director.
Fatherson received a letter from one volunteer who resigned, saying Rosales should have left food-quantity decisions to the director.
Rosales acknowledged that he and Fatherson have clashed over the past year as he sought to overhaul food storage and distribution. But the people who stand in line on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, he said, need better choices and larger quantities; he made it his business to procure more food by going to different grocery stores and finding the lowest prices on the largest quantities.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done,” he said. “More people are getting a lot more food.”
Built food bank
At the same time, Rosales emphasized that Fatherson deserves respect for building the food bank into what it is: a strong organization providing hundreds of people each month with fresh produce, bread, eggs, milk and meats as well as nonperishable goods.
Last March, Rosales surprised the longtime director by having a permanent sign placed on the Sequim Food Bank identifying it as the Nina and Bill Fatherson Complex. And in 2006, Rosales helped raise money for a truck so the Fathersons could stop driving their personal vehicle to supermarkets to pick up food.
That same year, the couple took their first vacation in decades while Rosales drove the truck and helped coordinate volunteers at the pantry.
He has also used the truck to haul loads for other organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, where Rosales also volunteers. He has shared food from the pantry with the Sequim club, Fatherson added.
“I’m not ashamed of anything we’ve done,” Rosales said. “More people are getting what they need. That’s all I’m trying to accomplish.”
There has been a turnover among board members and volunteers over the past 18 months as some who were close to Fatherson left, Rosales acknowledged.
But Don Howat, vice president of the board, has stuck with the organization, as a board member and volunteer since 1991.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes,” Howat said. “Nina was used to doing things a certain way,” but then Rosales “saw ways to save the food bank all kinds of money.”
The board is an energetic group, Howat said, adding that he believes the food bank will continue to serve its clients well.
But Howat said he hated to see Fatherson go, since she had devoted so much to the food bank; he knew she, just like Rosales, wanted to help people through difficult times.
Interim director
Rosales said he will serve as interim director of the pantry until after Christmas, but that he will not collect the former director’s salary of $2,700 per month.
Already he and Cliff Vining, a veteran volunteer, are assembling baskets and packages to give away at Thanksgiving.
Rosales, confident that he and the other volunteers can see the pantry through the coming busy season, said the board will advertise the executive director position in January.
For now, Rosales and crew are preparing for Nov. 26.
“Last Thanksgiving, we did 600 [family-size dinners],” he said. “This year we’ll probably do 800, but I’m ready for 1,000.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
