This is why we're here

Every day, we hear all kinds of stories from our clients. But sometimes we get a truly stark reminder of why it is we do what we do. Yesterday there was one such reminder in a phone call to our admin office. The caller, Richard, was a 58-year-old man in need of food for himself and his wife.

He wanted us to know that he had been turned away from another food bank organization. Without a car or access to a bus, he had walked several miles in the rain to get there, only to be refused food because he didn’t have the identification they required.  As he told us the story, he didn’t even sound angry, just sad and defeated. "I know they have their rules," he said, "but it just seemed wrong." He said he just wanted to tell us what had happened so that we wouldn’t refer anyone there. “I’m strong and I can keep trying,” he said, “but what if the same thing happened to some poor little old lady who had no other way to get food?”

As he talked, Richard shared more and more of his story, and it was heartbreaking. He and his wife recently moved to our area. His wife is ill, clinically depressed and in need of medical care. He has a job lined up to start next month, but until he starts work he has no money to pay for food or for the medicine his wife badly needs.

At FISH, we believe no one in need of food should ever be turned away. We knew we had to find a way to help. It was late in the day, it was raining heavily, and there was no food bank he could get to. But thanks to the dedicated staff at our Southeast food bank, and their willingness to go the extra mile to help someone in need, we were able to deliver some food to Richard and his wife.
We all have days when we're busy or overwhelmed. But when we do, it's stories like Richard's that remind us why it is we're here.

Thanks to Westgate Curves!

Many, many thanks to the wonderful, generous patrons of the Curves in Tacoma's Westgate area, whose annual food drive netted over 5,000 pounds of food for our NW Tacoma FISH Food Bank.

Here's the collected food at Westgate Curves after only two weeks of the month-long food drive!

The women challenged their colleagues at other local Curves to spur on the collection of needed food and non-food items.

Bargain hunters, unite!

It was a full house yesterday at the United Methodist Church at Lakewood as FISH presented another "Coupons 101" class with blogger Angela Russell. About 50 people listened avidly and asked lots of questions as Angela shared her tips for smart coupon shopping. See Angela's blog, The Coupon Project, for lots of good ideas for smart, ethical bargain shopping.

FISH partners with Tacoma Community College

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, FISH Food Banks of Pierce County is delighted to be partnering with Tacoma Community College to present a specially designed course in safety and warehouse management for food bank operations. Titled "Safety Excellence in the FISH Food Network," the six-hour class will give FISH Food Bank coordinators and other food warehouse operators an opportunity to look at the most common issues and pitfalls that can create safety hazards.

TCC business instructor Gary Olson has designed the class with input from FISH staff and safety office Marcus Stoll. Topics to be covered include safety training, materials handling, shelving/racking, proper lifting, housekeeping, truck safety, pedestrian safety, use of protective equipment and much more.

We're excited to be working with TCC on this project and hope it's the first of many!