What did you have to eat today? Was it enough? Was it to your liking? Were you grateful for it?

Sustenance is the most basic human need, yet most of us take advantage that we have plenty whenever we want it.

For 25 years, one Orcas charity has provided food to islanders without, and they’ve never asked the public for a penny. Not once.

“We have never asked. The community is fantastic and they have taken care of us,” Orcas Food Bank organizer Lina McPeake said.

McPeake noted that the Orcas community has simply been there to meet the needs of their neighbors without requiring an appeal, but this year is different. This year, the food bank is faced with about four times the demand of past years.

“Our numbers have skyrocketed,” McPeake said.

McPeake and her husband, Dave, have maintained the food bank for the last 24 of its 25 years in existence. In all that time, the McPeake’s have never seen demand this high.

In the coming weeks, the food bank will put together more than 70 holiday boxes for Thanksgiving. The boxes contain mostly canned goods like corn, peas, and stews. The food bank supplements the storage foods with dinner rolls and pumpkins as well as a turkey in each box.

“Then we’ll repeat it all at Christmas, except it will be a ham, instead of a turkey,” Lina said.

Each year, the turkeys and hams have been provided through a cash donation from the Lions Club.

The food bank is trying to meet this year’s demand.

“It used to be 30 people at Christmas for the boxes. This year, we were planning to put up 80 boxes, and we’re close to that number signed up already,” Lina said. “It’s never been like this.”

Due to the tourist economy of Orcas Island, the food bank expects the number of people served to grow this time of the year when seasonal work has dropped off and to peak at around 20 families. Lina said they are now looking at 80.

The food bank is temporarily located in the basement of Orcas Island Community Church on Madrona Street in Eastsound and open every Tuesday from 12:30 p.m. to about 2:30 p.m. Anyone is welcome at the food bank. There are no questions asked and if someone is in need but cannot make it in to town, occasionally the food bank will deliver to them.

The food bank gets a lot of help and they need it. Islanders bring groceries by, send in checks, and volunteer their time sorting the back room.

“We’re planning to build our very own building,” Lina said.

The McPeakes will apply for a grant as well as seek private donations in order to realize their goal of a new facility. On Tuesday, the San Juan County Council endorsed the food bank to seek a state grant of up to $200,000 to help fund the construction of a new building. George Post of The Exchange gave the first community donation that the McPeakes’ set aside for the construction fund. Post’s $533.33 came in the form of a woman’s purse loaded with nickels, dimes, and quarters.

“Feels funny that we are now asking,” McPeake said. “We have never done anything like that.”

Mail donations to the Orcas Food Bank at PO Box 424, Eastsound, 98245.