News

FEEDING KIDS 

On Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17, generous donors and volunteers helped Second Harvest and At The Core more than double our Bite2Go kit distribution to students in Spokane, Spokane Valley and Mead school districts. 

Second Harvest arranged for an emergency food pick-up for Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties on March 18 after the organization posted a request for food on social media. The post showed that the shelves of their food pantry were empty, as more families are in need of food assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a few hours of the post, Second Harvest restocked the pantry with fresh produce, nonperishable goods and other food items. Volunteers then coordinated food deliveries to families in need associated with the Boys & Girls Club. 

FEEDING SENIORS 

On Thursday, March 19, in partnership with Catholic Charities of Spokane volunteers, Second Harvest volunteers and staff distributed 1,300 Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) boxes to homebound seniors.

MOBILE MARKET 

Second Harvest will be doubling the Mobile Market bus schedule staring the week of March 23. 

In order to increase the number of Mobile Market events each week, we will add a second driver so that both Mobile Market vehicles - our large refrigerated truck and our bus - can be utilized four to five times each week. We will begin to schedule these additional Mobile Market distributions in conjunction with our existing partners and agencies. Second Harvest will work with our partner agency network to assess community needs and utilize the Mobile Market’s increased capacity to get food to where it’s needed most.  

Beginning the week of March 30, we will also use a semi-truck/trailer as a Mobile Market fleet vehicle. This vehicle will serve mostly rural communities. We are currently working with our rural partners to assess needs throughout the region and send this equipment where it can do the most good.  

Currently, we do not publicly promote Mobile Market bus events. We have increased the number of bus distributions to include more existing partner sites serving vulnerable communities. Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we plan to keep bus events private to better protect the health of vulnerable populations, such as seniors. 

VOLUNTEERS 

Volunteer shifts are being added in our warehouse to build emergency food boxes for distribution at Mobile Market events. These boxes will include shelf-stable foods, fresh produce, bread and beef from the Beef Counts program through the Washington Beef Commission (while supplies last). These volunteer shifts will occur Monday through Saturday and are open to fewer people in order to promote social distancing. You can sign up for these shifts on the Second Harvest VolunteerHub.