SEQUIM — Thankfulness was a key word among many visitors of Sequim Food Bank’s Family Holiday Meal Bag Distribution program in Carrie Blake Community Park.
The twice-a-year event offers hearty meals for households before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Volunteers from Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church and Dungeness Valley Lutheran Church packed 1,300 boxes of food for the November event.
Andra Smith, Sequim Food Bank executive director, said staff anticipate distributing all of the boxes by Monday after distributing 1,162 boxes — including 100 deliveries this past Friday — and another 50 on Saturday.
“Our community is wonderful and we’re always so grateful for their support of this project,” she said.
More than 30 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members, along with volunteers with the food bank, Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club, Sequim Valley Lions Club, Trinity United Methodist Church and others helped with food distribution.
Sequim Food Bank volunteer Linda Crabb said many residents at the drive-through event expressed how grateful they were for it.
Rising cost of food and general expenses were the main reason a dozen drivers interviewed for this story said they visited the event for the first time.
One mother of three drove from Port Angeles after seeing an announcement online.
“It helps a lot,” she said.
A Sequim woman said she and her mother wouldn’t have had a traditional Thanksgiving meal without the event. Another Sequim woman said “it’s been a tough year” and she’s in between jobs so the event will help her family celebrate Thanksgiving, too.
Food bank volunteer Connie Clark said many people she spoke with are single parents and/or picking up meals for their elderly parents.
“It’s everyone you can think of, even working couples who are having a hard time,” she said.
Food bank volunteer June Nicholas said she’s been told by visitors that the cost of staple foods and rent are making it harder on them.
Smith said demand is up 22 percent over last year at the food bank, and need has increased in every program. One of their more popular programs, the Weekend Meal Bag program for Sequim students, provided 272 bags of food last weekend, she said.
Food bank volunteers and staff estimate they average about 120 households each day the facility is open, including people with no running water and/or stove.
The Sequim Food Bank is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, and from 9 a.m. to noon Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, call 360-683-1205.
A second Family Holiday Meal Bag Distribution program day is set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15.
To make a donation online, visit sequimfood bank.org; mail to: Sequim Food Bank, P.O. Box 1453, Sequim WA, 98382. Or drop off a donation with staff at 144 W. Alder St.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
