Food Bank to offer new elderly nutrition program

New freezers purchased with Seabrook Foundation grant

May 8, 2018 1:30 am
Caption: Ocean Shores Food Bank volunteers Myriam Moist, left, and Arlene Stephenson, take frozen vegetables and meats out of the three new freezers the Food Bank recently purchased with part of a $10,000 from the Seabrook Community Foundation. Photo by Scott D. Johnston
Caption: Ocean Shores Food Bank volunteers Myriam Moist, left, and Arlene Stephenson, take frozen vegetables and meats out of the three new freezers the Food Bank recently purchased with part of a $10,000 from the Seabrook Community Foundation. Photo by Scott D. Johnston

By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON

The Ocean Shores Food Bank will start participating next week in a program the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says “works to improve the health of low income elderly persons at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods.”

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) distributes monthly packages, weighing 30-35 pounds per recipient, that “do not provide a complete diet, but rather are good sources of the nutrients typically lacking in the diets of the beneficiary population.”

Sandra Harley, Food Bank Executive Director, said “we were invited to participate” with up to 50 clients, by the state Dept. of Agriculture, which administers the program. Last year, the CSFP program served about 630,000 people each month nationally and received $236 million in federal funding.

Forty local Food Bank clients have already applied and been accepted. Ten slots remain, and Harley noted that applicants do not have to be already receiving food assistance. Proof of age and residence is required and income is limited to 130% of the federal poverty level, which works out to $15,782 annually for an individual.

“If we don’t fill these last 10 places, we will lose them,” Harley said. Anyone interested should call the Food Bank’s message line, 360-289-2171, or visit the Food Bank, located at 846 Anchor Ave. NW, on a food distribution day, the first and third Thursdays from 1:30 to 5 p.m.

The CSFP food boxes, the size of banana boxes, are delivered to the Food Bank on the third Wednesday morning of each month by Coastal Harvest, the non-profit in Hoquiam that distributes to food banks in seven southwestern Washington counties. Recipients can pick them up on those Wednesday afternoons, which means the first CSFP food boxes will reach the hands of at least 40 local low-income seniors on Wednesday, May 16. The boxes contain about 10 pounds of canned meats, packaged grains, pastas, beans, potatoes, cereals and beverages, and canned fruits and vegetables.

The Food Bank also announced that last month it received a $10,000 grant from the Seabrook Community Foundation. “These funds have allowed us to purchase three new freezers and one new refrigerator increasing our total food storage capacity by nearly 50 percent. With this increased capacity, food bank guests will not only receive additional quantities of frozen meats and vegetables, but fresh produce as well,” OSFB Board President Bob Harley wrote, in a letter thanking the Foundation.

Kathy Harris, Board Vice-president, reported that the third annual benefit dinner and auction, held April 7 at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, was the local non-profit’s “most successful yet. “We’d like to thank the community for their generous support. We sold out of 400 tickets for a fabulous dinner and dancing to the music of Raucous.”

She added that there were well over 200 items donated for silent and live auctions, the most ever. She also announced that Raucous, a Seattle-area 5-piece band, will return for next year’s fund-raiser, set for April 6, 2019.