Cookbook sales benefit FISH

Proceeds from the sale of a new cookbook will benefit FISH Food Banks. The self-proclaimed "Iron Chefs of General Plastics," a group of seven co-workers, have created their own cookbook, What's Cookin' at GP. The seven -- Cindy Bohnert, Adam Blanchard, Rory Endsley, Carenna Lan, Jerry Langston, Bob Coty and Shelly Holland -- were selected by their employer, General Plastics Manufacturing of Tacoma, to attend a college course in Manufacturing Management Teamwork Essentials. They decided to compile a book of their favorite recipes as their class project.

In their book, they write:

We, the authors of this book, consider ourselves to be extremely fortunate that we are employed and able to put food on our tables for ourselves and our families while so many in our community cannot. For this reason, we've decided to use some of the proceeds from this book to help our neighbors put food on their tables.

We will donate a majority of the profits from the sale of this book to FISH Food Banks of Pierce County.

And we at FISH are very grateful for their generosity! The book sells for $10 and we will have copies available for sale at the FISH Food Benefit Concert on Saturday, May 1 at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Happy Day!

Great news for a beautiful spring day! Just heard from the Boeing Employees Community Fund that our funding request has been approved, so very soon we will have a bright shiny new truck to better service our seven food bank locations. Many, many thanks to the generous Boeing employees!

Rocking for FISH

This week's Tacoma Weekly includes a great feature story on the upcoming FISH Food Benefit Concert. The third annual benefit will be held on Saturday, May 1 from 6-9 pm at Tacoma's Westminster Presbyterian Church. Come join us to hear artists from Maurice the Fish Records offer an eclectic evening of music. Scheduled artists include JNC Trio, Eric Montgomery, Nick Sandy, Savannah, Raymond Hayden and the Dark Drive Home, and Danielle Egnew.

Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 5236 East “B” Street in Tacoma. (Map) There is no admission charge; a free will offering will be collected and all proceeds will benefit FISH.

It's a family-friendly event that will offer great music and fabulous door prizes donated by sponsoring local businesses. See you there!

Thanks to Grainger

Many, many thanks to the good folks at Grainger Industrial Supply for their generous support of FISH Food Banks. Grainger representative Curtis King stopped by our new office on Friday to present a check for $5,000 in support of our work.

FISH is on the move!

Starting today, Lakes Area FISH will be serving clients at its new location, United Methodist Church at Lakewood, 6900 Steilacoom Blvd. SW in Lakewood. The food bank will also adopt new hours, open Monday 2:00 to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday and Friday 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

After 35 years at Little Church on the Prairie, Lakes FISH has simply outgrown its longtime home. Over the past two years, Lakes FISH has nearly doubled in number of clients served, from 16,602 clients in 2008 to 24,834 in 2009.

Many, many thanks to the congregation of Little Church on the Prairie for all their support over the years. They've been a huge part of FISH's history. We're thrilled that they will continue to work with us in our new location.

And the moves haven't stopped! FISH Food Banks is also moving its main office from its current site in the Associated Ministries building to a larger space in First Tower, part of the First United Methodist Church in Tacoma.

Effective at the beginning of April, our new office address will be: FISH Food Banks, First Tower, Suite 202, 621 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma 98402.

Innovation Award

We were very excited to be named the winner of this year's Weyerhaeuser Company Innovation Award. Weyerhaeuser's Effenus Henderson presented the award to FISH board president Sandy Roszman on Wednesday at the 2010 Nonprofit Excellence Awards. FISH Food Banks was honored for its "creativity in finding new ways to meet community needs more effectively," specifically through our partnership with South Sound Outreach Services in our Connection Centers and through our partnership with Rotacare and others in the new chronic care clinic at Southeast FISH. Partners and board members came to celebrate the award with us:



Pictured, left to right: Nyla Redford, Mike Mowat, Janet Runbeck, Renee Housten, Barbara Reed, Jerry Lee, Sandy Roszman, Beth Elliott, Roberta Marsh.

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!