‘The need for food is increasing,’ says Thurston County Food Bank development director
The downtown Olympia location of the Thurston County Food Bank served 220 people on Wednesday and expected to serve 240 on Friday, the nonprofit’s development director said.
And that number is expected to rise rapidly as coronavirus-related closures of restaurants, bars, businesses and schools leave workers without jobs or paychecks.
“The need for food is increasing,” Judy Jones said. “We have adequate food in reserve at the moment, but we’re always looking for more.”
The food bank also is facing challenges operating during the coronavirus outbreak. More than half of the food bank’s volunteers are retired, a demographic at higher risk of a deadly reaction to contracting coronavirus, so they have stayed home, Jones said.
The food bank typically has 30-35 volunteers, but only had five, plus a food bank staff of seven, on Wednesday, Executive Director Robert Coit said.
Given the smaller staff and social distancing requirements, the food bank is no longer allowing customers to shop inside the store, but is handing out bags of food.
Coit could put out a call for more volunteers, but then he runs the risk of violating coronavirus guidelines for group sizes — plus new volunteers need to be trained.
And with a smaller staff, he can’t run a food drive right now because he doesn’t have the people to pick up the food, he said.
The food bank works with area school districts and educational authorities to distribute food to children. Jones said they need donations of canned fruit, canned pasta dishes, or chili, plus granola bars, plain ramen and cup-a-soups.
If you deliver food to the food bank, they may not have enough volunteers to help offload that food, but they will provide a cart that donors can load and wheel in, Jones said.
Accessing and helping the food bank
The main location of the food bank is at 220 Thurston Ave. NE, Olympia, 98501. It is open for shopping 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Executive Director Coit said the food bank mostly needs cash donations. Donations can be made online, in person, or by mail to the address above.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
