The Queen Anne Helpline and Queen Anne Food Bank are teaming up with local businesses and churches to conduct food drives each month to support their food supply.
The Queen Anne Helpline provides emergency food to about 100 people each month who cannot get to the food bank, are low on food between visits or who are in an emergency situation. The Queen Anne Food Bank provides food to four ZIP codes: two in Queen Anne and two in Belltown. It serves about 100 people a week with the food bank and another 100 each day with its meal program.
“The piece that both of us were struggling with as we talked to each other was a consistent source of food being donated,” said Queen Anne Helpline executive director Lisa Moore.
Moore said she felt the agencies were constantly asking people for donations before they came up with the idea to host month-long food drives.
Each month, two or three groups will sign up for the drive. The Helpline and food bank will provide a donation box, promotional material and a list of most-needed items.
“We just launched this this September on a limited basis to see how it’s going to work,” Moore said.
The Queen Anne Helpline needs peanut butter, jam, canned meats like tuna and chicken, canned stews and chilis, cereal, crackers, canned fruit, toilet paper and small hygiene products.
The Queen Anne Food Bank is also asking for nonperishable items like peanut butter, canned soup, crackers cereal, canned vegetables, fruit, beans and granola bars.
“Some of the people that both organizations serve are living in shelters or homeless on the streets, so they need things that they can just open and eat,” Moore said. “We have somewhat different clients and somewhat different needs, so I think that will be a pretty amicable sharing of food. It seems like such a win-win, easy way for the community to be involved.”
For both Moore and the Queen Anne Food Bank executive director Elise Hale-Case, there isn’t a specific goal right now.
“Enough [food] to keep us both going and not have to go out and look for additional donations,” Moore said. “We’re grateful for whatever we can get to be honest.”
Hale-Case hopes this becomes a yearly event for the businesses, so people in the community know whom they can donate to each month.
“For me, it’s just exciting and important [because] the food bank is a relatively new organization,” Hale-Case said, adding she wants “to get people involved and let people know we exist.”
Moore said it’s important to make sure people, and especially children in the community, have enough to eat.
“Contrary to what people might think, there are people who are hungry in our community, and food equity is a huge issue,” she said.
The Queen Anne and Magnolia communities have been supportive and generous, both Hale-Case and Moore said.
“The fact that people are willingly stepping up to participate in the food drive and support the work that we do here...just continues to blow me away,” Moore said. “We are incredibly grateful.”
The groups participating in the food drive for the month of October are Inner Brilliance Chiropractic (419 Queen Anne Ave. N.), St. Anne Parish Hall (1411 First Ave. W.) and Seattle Therapy Alliance (200 First Ave. W.).
The Queen Anne Helpline’s annual gala is scheduled for Oct. 19; for more information, visit www.queenannehelpline.org.
For more information about the Queen Anne Food Bank, visit qafb.org.
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