In the past year, both Sequim and Port Angeles food banks have seen a decline in the number of people served on their distribution days. However, food bank leaders say those numbers may be misleading.

Among Sequim Food Bank’s three distributions days, the facility served 2,235 households in 2015 and about 2,000 in 2016, Executive Director Andra Smith said.

Jessica Hernandez, executive director of the Port Angeles Food Bank, said she sees a similar slope for its three distribution days, with 10,260 households served in 2015 compared to 9,824 in 2016.

Hernandez said the total individuals served has dropped from about 23,130 to 22,116.

Both Smith and Hernandez say they don’t know why the numbers are declining specifically but they are interested to see if there is a trend by the end of 2017. Regardless, the numbers aren’t stopping food bank staffers from finding new, innovative ways to help.

“The goals are to be really deliberate with how we use our funds and food and helping our visitors the way they need to be helped,” Smith said.

That includes expanded and creating new programming and creating nutritional concepts such as getting fresher food to the public sooner, Smith said.

“We don’t just distribute three days a week anymore,” she said. “We’re active in so many other projects. In a way, we reach out instead of waiting for them to come here.”

Weekend meal bags

One of the Sequim Food Bank’s continuing efforts is Weekend Meal Bags, a program that sees community members prepare and deliver for Sequim students through the school year.

“It was eating us up that we couldn’t feed the kids over the summer,” Smith said, so staff plans to partner with the Boys &Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.

The club will continue to offer the USDA Summer Lunch Program at various sites in Sequim and on Fridays, the food bank will offer weekend meal bags for 12 weeks.

“By adding this on, it will be our second most expensive program next to distribution days,” Smith said.

To do so, they are asking community businesses for $1,500 sponsorships to provide 200 meals per weekend.

To support the program, contact the Sequim Food Bank at 683-1205, 461-6038 or email sequimfoodbank@olypen.com.

More efforts

Hernandez said the Port Angeles Food Bank is being more strategic about the food it distributes, too.

“With federal funding being cut for programs like EBT (electronic benefit transfer), people are getting less and less support,” she said. “That means they are less likely to buy lean meats or nutritious vegetables opposed to highly salted, cheaper sources of food.”

“If they have only $200 a month on EBT they’re not going to spend it on spinach,” Hernandez said.

One effort to get fresh food to locals includes sending excess food from facilities across the peninsula. Smith said food bank staff on the Olympic Peninsula travel to Port Angeles for Food Lifeline deliveries on Tuesdays. Between Monday and Friday distribution days in Sequim, foods that may expire before the end of week are sent out to the West End for use.

Hernandez said they call the West End and smaller food banks on the peninsula to see if they want abundance food items, such as fruits, potatoes and bread.

The Port Angeles facility also started a program for homeless individuals to receive items differently, too. Hernandez said that because individuals and families are allowed to come in just once a month for distribution, homeless individuals may want nonperishable items like beans and rice that they can save and cook on a camp stove.

“We’re trying to do a better, more strategic job of what we can do best with a dollar,” Hernandez said.

“We’re asking, ‘What do our clients need?’ Not more junk and because of that I don’t think they need to come as often. It gives them things that can stretch meals like brown rice.”

“We’re filling bellies and helping households make smarter decisions,” Hernandez said.

To better understand needs in Sequim, Smith said they plan to conduct a needs assessment in the spring to ask more questions with users.

“Our last needs assessment in 2015 showed about 80 percent of our users wanted more fresh fruit and veggies,” she said.

Gleaning

An ongoing program centered on food waste reduction and gleaning saw its biggest effort in seven years on the peninsula, too.

Dan Littlefield, AmeriCorps food recovery coordinator, said about 300 volunteers plucked trees and picked fields in Sequim and Port Angeles to bring in about 25,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables in 2016 for area food banks. That’s up about 2,000 pounds from 2015, he said.

“We find things year-round,” Littlefield said.

“(Last week), Lazy J Tree Farm gave us 1,255 pounds of potatoes that we distributed to six different programs between Sequim and PA. (This week) we’re going out to Forks and Neah Bay to distribute roughly the same amount.”

Hernandez commends the program saying it’s “directed that potential waste to families that may not have been able to buy that spinach or other vegetables and fruits.”

Littlefield said he does his best to bring fresh produce to the West End because “due to the resources, they’re harder to get out there.”

The Food Recovery Program works out of the Washington State Extension Office in the Clallam County Courthouse and Littlefield’s position ends in February, but he’ll stay on through March to train a new person.

One of his goals is start a food rescue program with special events and restaurants in coordination with the Department of Health over safe travel of food.

He also co-piloted a program with Karlena Brailey, nutrition educator from the WSU extension, at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center in Port Angeles to process and make about 50 gallons of applesauce for distribution through Meals on Wheels.

Hernandez said WSU extension office staff come in a few times a month to the Port Angeles Food Bank to offer taste tests of items like chard to make it taste better in a meal.

To participate in gleans, contact Dan Littlefield at 417-2279 or daniel.littlefield@wsu.edu.

The Port Angeles Food Bank, 402 S. Valley St., Port Angeles, opens for distribution from 1-3:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Contact the facility at 452-8568.

The Sequim Food Bank, 144 W. Alder St., Sequim, is open 1-4 p.m. Mondays, 9 a.m.-noon Fridays and Saturdays.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

River Run Farm in Sequim helped supply the WSU Extension Office’s food reduction and gleaning program with some of its 25,000 pounds collected from farms and homes in Sequim and Port Angeles in 2016. Photo courtesy of Dan Littlefield

Gleaners Karen Coles and Diana Mullins walk away with a good haul at River Run Farm in 2016 to help the WSU Extension Office’s food reduction and gleaning program support area food banks. Photo courtesy of Dan Littlefield

Officials with Forks Food bank, Sequim Food Bank, Salvation Army, Port Angeles Food Bank, and Serenity House load supplies from Food Lifeline on Jan. 31, at Port Angeles Food Bank. Different agencies gather there weekly to pickup supplies and distribute abundant items. Photo courtesy of Jessica Hernandez