Thank you!
June 4, 2020
We Love Our City is so grateful to be partnering with the Federal Way Senior Center Food Bank. A huge community effort went into collecting, organizing, and distributing 27,435 pounds of fresh produce, dairy, and lunch meat, and 3000 individual size bags of chips! A beautiful display of teamwork as multiple churches, non-profits, and individuals picked up food and distributed throughout our community.
• Thanks to everyone who donated towards the Breakfast Food Challenge for the ECEAPS/Preschool families. We surpassed our goal of 100 bags of pancake mix, 100 bottles of syrup, and 100 boxes of cereal. This is the 7th week the staff packed and distributed groceries, diapers, toiletries, and cleaning supplies to 150+ families (approximately 450 people). Side note: they order and receive pallets from PCF separately, not from the FWSC Food Bank. Many churches, staff & friends have helped donate cleaning supplies, diapers, food, and other needed items. Special thanks to the Church of the Nazarene, Family Life, LDS Church & Grace Church for your generous donations. Thank you Laura Batcheller for coordinating all of this!
• Thank you, Frito-Lay, for donating 3000 individual bags of chips, and to Mark Stringer for delivering.
• Shout out to Tammy Chanes (Brooklake Church) for gathering 16 friends and their vehicles, along with Laura Pauls’ truck & horse trailer, to go to Farmer Frog/Paradise Farms in Woodinville to pick up 6900 pounds of potatoes, onions, and apples. Speaking of Brooklake, one of their members, Jeff Waterfall, comes every single week to help direct traffic and load food into coolers, and recently repaired a hand railing!
• Peninsula Trucking picked up 8 pallets of beautiful, fresh produce boxes from The Union Gospel Distribution Center in Kent and delivered FREE of charge! (7200 pounds) Our heroes!!!
• Pacific Coast Fruit Co. hooked us up and delivered 8 pallets—produce, dairy & combo (450 boxes each weighing 25-27 pounds). This is the USDA Farm to Family program.
• The FWSC Food Bank volunteers served 115 households (380 individuals). 43 households were there for the first time. They distributed grocery boxes along with diapers, pet food, bread & other non-perishable items.
• WLOC volunteers drivers loaded up 132 grocery boxes and delivered to King’s Court and Evergreen Apartments, in support of the Integrity Life weekly feeding program.
• Christ the King, Grace Church, Christ’s Church, Integrity Life Church, International House of Prayer, and Family Life volunteers picked up grocery boxes and distributed to apartments and individual families.
• Our partners at Club Palisades (Apartment Life & One Hope Church) also received 2 pallets of produce from Union Gospel and a pick-up load full of a variety of boxes from the FWSC Food Bank. Over 100 families were served.
• Calvery Lutheran and FW Caregiving volunteers picked up several grocery boxes each, for their feeding programs for the homeless.
• Meanwhile…volunteers were also working on site at the FW Community Garden where thousands of pounds of organic produce are grown and donated to the community each year.
Exact numbers of pounds of food and individuals that received food would be impossible to count, but we know a whole lot of love, care, and FOOD went into the community today!!!
“Thank you” sounds so inadequate for all the hard work and effort that went into today. Please know each of you are deeply appreciated and you are making a big difference in the lives of many.
We will continue this every Thursday until the grocery boxes are no longer available. Contact us if you can volunteer! 8:30 am–12:30 pm. Trucks/large vehicles and drivers needed!