Dear food bank insider,

Happy Volunteer Appreciation Week! We’re so grateful to our volunteers, and we can never say thank you enough (not that we don’t try!). Anthony sent out a message this week that resonated with me:

“The staff and board members at the Sumner Food Bank always boast about the quality of our volunteer family. We use the term family, as our relationship with our volunteers is a core value of everything we do at the food bank. We understand and acknowledge that our volunteers are the heart and sole of our operations. Without you, we could not possibly do what we do on a daily basis. With you, we do what seems to be the impossible every day.”

In this month’s newsletter, we hear from one of our customers Holly, a look at our food bank renovation, & our campaign to #GiveBig to people in need! Thank you for your support for our neighbors in need!

Sincerely,

Sumner Community Food Bank

p.s. our renovation isn’t done yet! Stay tuned for our next project: our new Marketplace!

Feature Story

“Basic Food & WIC assistance would often run out…”

One thing we see a lot of is people using every official resource available to them to get enough food for their families. Sometimes, it’s just not enough. Holly shared her story with us:

“I receive Basic Food [SNAP] and WIC assistance, and before coming to the food bank I would often run out of food before I could get more. WIC never gives enough milk or formula so I need to use a lot of my basic food to cover those needs. And I myself would have to go without or worry anytime my older child didn’t have school as to how I was going to feed them breakfast or lunch on top of dinner.

After coming to the food bank I do not have the same worries anymore. I can eat more than one meal and know that I have enough food for my children. [I like] that I can shop for what I need and not be given a bunch of things we will never use. [I also like] that I can wait in my car for my turn with my baby out of the weather.

I know some people are afraid or ashamed to need a food bank and are in similar situations as me. If they can just take that leap, the kind people who donate their time would help them get started to have enough food for their family as well.”

What We’ve Been Up to Lately

a group of men standing in front of a truck

Building Renovation Underway!

Thanks to a grant from the WSDA, we are renovating our cold storage, adding a new large walk-in cooler. This much larger cooler will allow us to store and distribute more staple foods like eggs, dairy, and produce.

Our next project involves converting our old cooler into a larger freezer, and then on to our full Marketplace overhaul next month! Stay tuned!

GiveBig 2023

GiveBig occurs on May 2-3, where thousands of people show their support for their favorite Washington nonprofits.

This year, we’re raising money to purchase milk for families in need. With rising food prices, families are finding it difficult to get the nutritious food they need. Early giving is open now, so help a family out today!

Give Big Now!

New Resource Guides on website

Food is rarely the only need people are facing, and we are dedicated to provide as many resources as possible through our partnerships with other organizations.

To this end, we’ve added some new resource guides to our website to help people find what they need in our community!

See the guides