Pierce County Gleaning Project

Have you ever watched that fruit tree on your street ripen, and noticed that most of the perfectly tasty apples ended up falling and rotting on the ground? If you hate to see good food go to waste, you’ll be relieved to hear that The Pierce County Gleaning Project is actively working towards a solution. We live in a time when thousands in our community struggle to put food on the table. Diet-related diseases in low-income populations are on the rise due to reduced access to healthy foods like fresh produce. And yet so much food just goes to waste. Gleaning is a great way to reduce food waste and relieve hunger at the same time.

The Pierce County Gleaning Project (PCGP), a collaborative effort of the Emergency Food Network, St. Leo’s Food Connection, and Rotary First Harvest, runs an urban fruit harvest in Tacoma, gleans from farms and farmers markets in the Puyallup Valley, and connects gardeners with food banks through a Plant a Row for the Hungry/Share the Harvest Program. Last year PCGP gleaned (harvested food that would otherwise go to waste) over 30,000 lbs of produce and expects to increase that this year.

Did your tomato plants produce far more than you expected this year? Do you have extra fruit on your fruit tree that you would like to see go to good use? Would you like to grow an extra row of carrots for the food bank? You can help PCGP to reduce both food waste and hunger in Pierce County.

Here’s how you can help:

Volunteer: Help pick tree fruit with your neighborhood fruit harvest group, join in on the Friday morning farm gleans, or plant an extra row for your local food bank.

1) Sign up online at www.piercecountygleaningproject.org or call 253-584-1040.

2) Attend a training to help with Tacoma fruit harvest or to learn how to set up a harvest in your own community (e.g., Gig Harbor). Training sessions will be offered:

Wednesday, July 11, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Wheelock Library, 2722 North 26^th Street

Saturday, July 21, 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Moore Library, 215 South 56^th Street

Register your Fruit Tree: We can help you pick your excess tree fruit and donate it to a local food bank. If you have a fruit tree, register it online at www.piercecountygleaningproject.org or call (253) 383-5048

Gearing up for summer

The kids may be counting down to the end of the school year, and families may be looking forward to a slower pace during summer vacations, but the summer months are busy and challenging in our food banks.

For food banks, summer usually means that demand increases, while donations drop off. During the school week, for example, free and reduced price school meal programs help to ensure that kids from low-income families don't go hungry. But school vacations mean that families already struggling to make ends meet need to fill that gap, and that means increased demand on the food banks. Meanwhile, donations often hit a lull until organizations begin to gear up for fall and holiday food drives.

What can you do to help? Do you have extra produce from your garden? Consider donating it to the nearest FISH Food Bank. Fresh produce flies off our shelves when we are able to offer it. Consider a summer drive for food or funds to help stock our shelves. Remember that for every dollar donated, FISH can provide seven dollars' worth of food to hungry families -- your help makes all the difference!

Dancing the night away ...

Dancing to the beat of Daryl and the Diptones

FISH's first-ever Spring FriendRaiser was a rousing success, raising approximately $20,000 to further our work of feeding hungry people in Pierce County. The 400+ people gathered at Tacoma's Landmark Convention Center on Saturday evening mingled, munched and rocked out to the classic '60s and '70s music of Daryl and the Diptones, and a grand time was had by all. Congratulations and a big thank-you to FISH board members Barbara Reed and Marianne Hilton, who co-chaired the event.

We are especially grateful to Daryl and the Diptones and the Landmark Convention Center, whose generosity made this event possible.

Big thanks go to our major sponsors:

J.P. Work & Associates, Inc.
Olympic Eagle Distributing
Porter Brothers Construction
Schuur Bros. Inc.
Vaughn Bay Construction
Western Marine Construction

Thanks also to our table sponsors:
America’s Credit Union 
Bargreen-Ellingson
Clover Park Rotary
Exchange Club
Gray Lumber
Heritage Bank
Pierce County Health Care Providers
Willis Marketing
Randy Cook
Marianne Hilton
Rita Morkrid

Special Thanks to
Erichsen Cabinet Shop
Minuteman Press - Downtown Tacoma
Inform Puget Sound
and all of our wonderful table captains!

We're looking forward to an even bigger and better event next year!

It's never too early

... for the littlest among us to learn about helping their neighbors in need. That was the lesson when a delightful group of preschoolers from St. Luke's Memorial Episcopal Church visited Northwest FISH. The group of four- and five-year-olds toured the food bank with their teacher Terri Atkinson. Food bank coordinator Debbie Price reports, "we all discusses the families in our community that aren't always able to buy food for themselves and the importance of helping each other when people sometimes aren't able to take care of themselves." The youngsters brought food donations and a big Ziploc bag of donated coins.

St. Luke's Memorial Episcopal preschool class visits NW Tacoma FISH

Food bank coordinator Debbie Price tours the kids through the food bank

Teacher Terri Atkinson and students listen as Debbie explains how the food bank works

Looking back, looking ahead

2011 was quite a year for FISH, and we continue to be immensely grateful for all the friends, volunteers, donors and supporters who make our work possible.

A few highlights:

• In 2011 we served more than 450,000 Pierce County residents, a 25% increase over 2010.
• We distributed approximately 7,500,000 pounds of donated food.
• We added a new food bank: Key Peninsula Lutheran Church joined our organization in April and is now Key Peninsula FISH. 
• With generous support from The Thompson Foundation and Mountain Construction, we added 1,000 square feet of badly-needed storage space at Southeast FISH. 
• Under the leadership of board member Mike Mowat, we began piloting a mobile food bank project designed to reach pockets of poverty around the county where there is high need and no nearby food bank.

And we're already planning big things for 2012:

• The mobile food bank is now serving at three different sites each week, with more to be added: Giaudrone Middle School (Mondays 4:30-6:30 p.m.), Bethel High School (Wednesdays 4:30-6:30 p.m.) and Northeast Tacoma Elementary School (Fridays 4:30-6:00 p.m.).
• Our board of directors is planning its first fundraising event. The dance, featuring the music of Daryl and the Diptones, will be held on Saturday, April 28 at the Landmark Convention Center in Tacoma.
• Thanks to a new and growing partnership with Bethel School District, we will be opening a new food bank in July 2012 on the campus of the former Spanaway Elementary School.

It's going to be another big year, so keep watching this space for more news!

More from the mobile food bank

Our partners at Grace Place Church, which is hosting the mobile food bank on Fridays from 12-2 pm, posted some video from the dedication on Oct. 14.

Grace Place is located at 3801 S. Union in Tacoma.

Take a look at our new mobile food bank

Our new mobile food bank made a very successful debut last week with stops at Grace Place Church, where Pastor Danny Thomas offered a blessing and dedication of the new mobile unit, and at Northeast Tacoma Elementary School.

The mobile unit, a converted 45-ft furniture van, is Pierce County's first completely self-contained mobile food bank and one of only a few in the country. Take a look:

Clients enter the mobile unit on the side and push their shopping cart right down the center aisle.

Ramps at the side and back make for easy entry and exit.

FISH's Debbie Price and Mike Mowat review shelf stock for the mobile food bank's first stop.