Campus food bank offers assistance
Sarah Radmer
The Communicator

The current combination of a turbulent stock market and high food and gas prices has many people struggling to make ends meet. This means, that this year more than ever local food banks are seeing an increase in demand and a decrease in donation.      

Second Harvest Food Bank provides more than one million pounds of food each month to those who need it in Washington and Idaho. 

SFCC  uses the $300 budget they are alloted from the school each week, as well as donations, to purchase discounted food from Second Harvest to stock the on-campus food bank.

Mark Perreira, a work study student for the SFCC food bank, was purchasing Top Ramen on sale and eating it every day before he discovered the food bank on campus.

“I was one of those starving students. I didn’t know we had [a food bank], and I was too proud  and embarrassed to go to somewhere like Second Harvest.” Perriera said.

Perriera has noticed a large increase in demand with the recent economic decline. During the Spring 2008 quarter, SFCC was getting an average of two students a day in the Food Bank. This quarter, the bank has seen an average of seven to nine students a day.

Perriera attributes the increase in demand not only to the volatile economy but also to awareness that the Food Bank exists.

Tucked away in at the far end of a hall in Building 17, Room 139 that hosts the Food Bank is easy to miss. However, this isolated location adds to the anonymity students appreciate about SFCC’s food bank in comparison to other local food banks.

The SFCC Food Bank has very few restrictions on who can benefit from it. To receive food a person must be enrolled as a current student, have a student I.D. card as well as an additional form of identification, like a drivers license, and have completed the Food Bank application for the current school year. 

Students are able to come to the food bank and get food for not only themselves but for their families. There is a 13.5 pound limit per person. A student with a spouse and 2 children can collect 54 pounds of food during their visit. Items such as flour and produce do not count towards the weight limit.

Rod Wieber, the Director of Donor and Community Relations at Second Harvest has also noticed an increase in people using the resources provided at one of their twenty emergency food banks throughout the greater spokane area.

“This summer we saw a decline in food and need was increasing.” Wieber said.

Second Harvest has seen a 10-30% increase in clientele. A statistic that Wieber attributes to rising food, gas, and energy costs. 

Second Harvest’s annual client survey that goes out to their emergency food banks, revealed that one out of 5 clients receiving food this year, were visiting food banks for the first time.

Second Harvest’s food reaches more than fifteen thousand people each month. Out of those 4 in 10 are children under 18. Another 1 out of 10 are vulnerable seniors living on fixed incomes.

To receive food from one of Second Harvest’s emergency food banks, an i.d. needs to be shown and documentation to prove a place of residence.

"Its just really a declaration of need.” Wieber said.

Of the 13 million pounds of food Second Harvest distributes annually, nearly half of that is perishable.

“To have a kid eating an apple instead of a bag of chips is much better. [Perishables] are staples they can’t afford when they go to the grocery store.” Wieber said.

The Food Bank at SFCC is working in cooperation with Tom’s Turkey Drive for Thanksgiving baskets. Students can sign up in the food bank to receive a basket including turkey and thanksgiving fixings that will be distributed November 20.

”Right now we are anticipating food bank lines are going to be longer, and get longer before they get shorter.” Wieber said.

You can contact the writer at staffwriter@spokanefalls.edu