Half of Orcas islanders qualify for help at Food Bank

||| FROM DAVID & GERI TURNOY |||

Did you know that half the people living on Orcas Island qualify for help at the Orcas Food Bank? The first quarter of 2019 compared to the 4th quarter of 2022, household visits increased by 194%, and new customers continue to register monthly. Thankfully the Food Bank receives most of its donations from larger hunger relief agencies like Food Lifeline and other WSDA-supported sources. Still, there are many foods not available through this route. Staples like olive oil, canola oil, condensed milk, Ensure, spices, healthy teen snacks, and many other needed food items are only available to Food Bank customers if gifted to the Food Bank by community members such as yourself.

The Orcas Food Project (OFP) was founded a little over a year ago to fill this void. In many neighborhoods around the island, a volunteer neighborhood coordinator has recruited a number of food donors. Every two months, six times per year, donors fill an OFP bag with needed food items. (By the way, if you aren’t here the whole year, you can simply participate when you are here.) The second Sunday of the even-numbered months, the coordinator drops by each donor’s house to pick up the filled bag and leave an empty bag with a new food list for the next time. The food list is newly created each time by a Food Bank administrator. Then the next day the coordinators bring the filled bags to the Food Bank, where we weigh them and then sort them. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the current neighborhood coordinators and food donors for their continued efforts in feeding our neighbors.

Most months,  we have averaged about 700 pounds of food. This is food that would not be available but for this program. The need continues, so we are looking to recruit new food donors. We would also like to recruit additional coordinators for neighborhoods where we don’t have donors yet. We currently have neighborhood coordinators in Orcas Highlands, Doe Bay/Olga, Buck Mountain, Eastsound, West Sound, Victorian Valley, Grindstone Harbor, Spring Point, and Mt. Woolard. If you live in one of these neighborhoods and would like to participate, please get in touch with us, and we will put you in touch with your neighborhood coordinator. If you would like to start this project in an area we currently don’t have in our system, please get in touch with us so we can better explain the program to you and help you get started. It really is a very simple yet much-needed way to help your neighbors.

Thanks for your consideration.