Julie Broadwell sits near the entrance of QFC collecting donations for Alaska Airlines’ Pack a Plane campaign for food banks on Nov. 24. Broadwell collected enough money to donate 3,840 pounds of food. Photo courtesy of Julie Broadwell

Sequim Gazette staff

Nearly 4,000 pounds of food purchased through donations from Sequim shoppers will go to fill a 737 airplane as part of Alaska Airlines’ Pack a Plane campaign.

Julie Broadwell, who works for the airline and lives in Sequim, spent Nov. 24 at QFC collecting donations for the campaign with Margaret Witt and Donn Kerr.

“They were so generous,” Broadwell said of the shoppers who donated $600 and three bags of food. “I can’t believe it. I was in awe when I came home and counted the money.”

This is the second year Alaska Airlines has conducted the Pack a Plane campaign, which seeks to fill three 737 airplanes full of food for local food banks where the airline is stationed. Last year they filled two airplanes, Broadwell said.

Every $5 donated to the campaign equals 32 pounds of food for the food banks, Broadwell said.

The food is likely to go to a food bank in the Seattle area, where Alaska Airlines has a station, she said.