Foodbank thanks many

by The Orcas Island Food Bank Board, Staff and Volunteers

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, but our amazing Food Bank staff and volunteers are right on top of it, and our community continues to deliver goods, time and money like no other. The Food Bank FaceBook page () highlights these acts of kindness almost daily, but here’s just a smidgen of the latest…

Orcas Island Lion’s Club – A roaring thanks for the Shelter!! The generous 3-month tent donation has been a lifesaver! It made it possible for us to safely accommodate food distribution to our ballooning clientele during this very critical time. We now are able to move our distribution back inside our building. Thank you so much Orcas Lions!

A Moving Thanks to Orcas Freight! Once a month, these folks have been picking up our vital commodities donations from the Bellingham Food Bank and delivering directly to our door. Your commitment to the wellbeing of this community and the Food Bank is inspiring.

Thank You Lower Tavern for all of your morale-boosting donations, and to Island Market and the Orcas Food Co-op for their continued donations and support.

We Are Consistently Blessed by Our Farms! Rob and Brenda Harlow of Black Dog Farm have generously donated all of their yields to us this summer! Morningstar Farm, Maple Rock Farm, West Beach Farm and Orcas Farm consistently deliver some of the finest produce in the land for our clients. Our management is now in the throes of creating a planting calendar to develop a consistent stream of fresh, organic produce for our clients.

To show our appreciation to the Orcas Island Community Church for the use of its property, our staff and volunteers will be sprucing up the flower beds along the Food Bank side of the Church, and San Juan Sanitation has donated a truckload of quality mulch to help us do the job.

A Huge Shout Out to Our Island Businesses and Individuals – ACE Hardware, Island Pie, Orcas Online and tennis coach Jill Toney Dann, to name a few, who consistently share hard-earned revenues with the Orcas Island Food Bank which are above and beyond generous. These, together with more than 600 individual donors, keep our clients’ needs met through these unprecedented times.

And Thanks to So Many Community Collaborators, including The YMCA of Greater Seattle, Orcas Senior Center, Orcas Community Resource Center, OICF, Orcas Public Schools, Kaleidoscope, SJC Health and Community Services WIC, SJC Fairgrounds, SJC Food Systems Team, Permit Resources, Inc., Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture, and Orcas Fur and Feathers 4H.

This article acknowledges just a few of the people who keep us going. Everyone on Orcas Island with a beating heart is touched in some way by the unselfishness of our community and the Orcas Food Bank is no exception.