More Easy Budget Recipes

We've found another great resource for low-cost, quick and easy recipes. The folks at St. James Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio have created a website and a downloadable cookbook called One * Pot Meals.

Editor Bernice Abel describes the book as "Good food for good people," and says her goal in putting the book together was to produce "a cookbook for people like me who use paper towels instead of napkins and wouldn’t know what a garlic press is if they got caught in one." Check it out!

Plan now for Hunger Action Day

On Friday, Jan. 29, the Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition will host the annual Hunger Action Day in Olympia. This is a concrete way to fight hunger here in Washington state. Plan now to be part of the effort to make sure our legislators hear the voices of Washington's hungry children and families. For more information or to register, see the 2010 Hunger Action Day blog.

Happy New Year

It's barely 2010, and it's already shaping up to be a busy year at FISH Food Banks. The Lakewood food bank has outgrown its long-time home at Little Church on the Prairie, and is looking for a permanent site. Meanwhile, the food bank will relocate before March 1 to temporary quarters at United Methodist Church of Lakewood. Many thanks to the Pastor Bonnie Warren and her congregation for their hospitality!

The new permanent site should be at least 1,000 sq. ft. and have easy access for food loading. If you can suggest a possible site, call 253-383-3164 or email Beth Elliott.

Merry Christmas at Southeast FISH

It's looking a lot like Christmas at SE FISH this week. Santa has been holding court, greeting clients and volunteers alike with hugs and hearty ho-ho-hos. Parents are receiving bags of candy for the little ones at home, and kids who come to the food bank are receiving candy and toys from the big guy himself.



While most of the kids were surprised and excited to see Santa, some wanted to talk. One serious young fellow, clutching his new game, asked, "what's the hardest part of your job?" He nodded soberly when Santa told him it was when the littlest kids get scared, agreeing, "yeah, I guess that would be hard."

But the overall mood is very festive, with Christmas decorations throughout the food bank and volunteers wearing their holiday best.

Below, volunteer Marina takes advantage of a momentary lull to pose with Santa:



Five-year-old Shalisa appointed herself Santa's helper while she waited for her mom to finish shopping. She was excited to receive a new learning game and a bag of candy from Santa.

Making birthdays happy!

Production line workers at Tacoma's Birds Eye Foods held a birthday drive for FISH Food Banks as part of their company's United Way campaign. Each worker was challenged to bring in one birthday party item - cake mix, frosting, candles, birthday plates and cups, party hats and more. The workers would have a party of their own if they reached their goal of 160 items. They had plenty of cause to celebrate when the final count came in at over 500 birthday items! The party supplies will be used by the food banks to offer a "birthday in a box" package to client families. What a great way to provide a birthday celebration to kids and a little relief to families struggling just to make ends meet!

Special thanks go to all of the workers who contributed, to Birds Eye staff Andee Handeland, Cathy Kilgore and Georgiana Marzano, and to United Way Loaned Executive Mark Kawabata.

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.