FISH will offer nutrition classes

Southeast FISH will host a series of nutrition classes in the next two weeks as part of a pilot program with the newly established Connection Center at the food bank. The sessions will offer meal planning, recipes, food demos and more. Families will have the opportunity to participate in the classes from 9:30-10:30 a.m. while they wait their turn to go through the food bank. A ticket system will ensure that no one loses their place in line.

Here's the initial schedule:

Monday, 11/23/09
Family Meals - Easy, Tasty, and Healthy!
Discuss how to plan, shop, and prepare healthy, low-cost meals for the family and learn ways to let our children help. We will discuss the difficulties and some ideas on how to make meals low-cost.

Wednesday, 11/25/09
How Much? Food and Physical Activity
A healthy lifestyle means paying attention to what we eat and how physically active we are each day. We will discuss the kinds and amounts of foods that our family needs.

Monday, 11/30/09
Vegetables and Fruits - Simple Solutions
Talk about ways to include the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables in our daily meal plans and learn ways to encourage our children to eat fruits and vegetables.

Wednesday, 12/02/09
Family Time - Active and Fun
Discuss why being physically active is important and the challenges to being active every day. Learn how to be more physically active and begin to make healthy choices for meals and snacks.

Additional classes will be scheduled at Northwest FISH and Edgewood. Watch this space for dates and times.

Number of hungry Americans continues to climb

A new USDA report says that more Americans than ever are facing food insecurity. In 2008, some 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households, struggled to put enough food on the table to support a healthy lifestyle. The numbers represent a significant increase over 2007, when food insecurity affected 11.1 percent of households. Find the NY Times coverage of the report here, and the USDA press release here.

Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says

A new study based on 30 years of data says that nearly half of US children will be on food stamps at some point in their childhood, more evidence that belies common stereotypes of those who need food assistance.
The Associated Press: Half of US kids will get food stamps

All the necessities ...

Families who come to our food banks for help need more than food. While food is the most essential need, it's easy to overlook other necessities we take for granted, like personal hygiene items. News Tribune columnist Kathleen Merryman spotlighted a group of eager volunteers from Good Samaritan Behavioral Health who have started a Toilet Paper Club to supply the Graham-South Hill FISH with rolls of TP for their clients. Read all about it ... and think about starting a Toilet Paper Club for your local food bank!

Save a date for Santa

Before your holiday plans get firmed up, make a place on your calendar for the first ever Santa Runs Tacoma 5K Run & Walk, to be held on Saturday, Dec. 19 on the Tacoma Waterfront. Check-in and registration begins at 7:00 a.m. at The Dock, 535 Dock St. in Tacoma; events begin at 9:00 a.m. Participants are being asked to bring non-perishable foods for FISH. The day promises to be fun for everyone, with Tiny Tim's 1K Kids' Run, Frosty's 5K Run and Walk, and The Grinch 10K Relay. Register online at the Santa Runs website.

Two tons of food!

Word just came in that the amazing folks at Temple Beth El (see below) collected a whopping 4,417 pounds of food in their annual food drive! Many, many thanks from all of us at FISH and from the clients of the Jackson St. FISH Food Bank who will benefit from this generous donation.

Temple Beth El food drive benefits Jackson St. FISH

Each year, during the Days of Awe between the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, families from Tacoma's Temple Beth El collect food for the Jackson St. FISH Food Bank.

To liven up this year's food drive, Temple board president Lisa Sobel issued a challenge: she would donate non-perishable milk products to accompany all the cereal donated. The result created a unique monument in the Temple rotunda, built of cereal boxes!


The youth groups from Temple Beth El and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church gathered together to sort all the food and load it into the FISH van for transport to Jackson St. FISH, which is housed at St. Andrew's.






















Thanks to all the contributors and volunteers who gave so generously, especially coordinators Herman and Barbara Kleiner of Temple Beth El.