PRESS RELEASE:

ALTRUSA MEMBERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY EVENT

FILLS FISH FOOD BANK SHELVES It was time to MAKE A DIFFERENCE

 

Said Altrusa Gig Harbor President Rose Jaeger. Recognizing that the local FISH Food Bank had been suffering, along with the rest of us, with the Covid Shutdown, members of the local service club resolved to do something about it.

 

October 24 was National Make A Difference Day, and since Altrusa had dedicated the last five years to feeding at-risk children in the Gig Harbor area through their Empty Bowls event, they expanded their impact in response to the Covid shut-down with a food drive to benefit FISH. The carloads of food arrived Saturday morning at the Food Bank doors, and it could not have been more welcome. Food Bank Director Jan Coen could not have been more pleased.

 

“This is the largest food drive we have had come to us since Covid closed everything down last March.

We were getting some pretty bare shelves,” she said. Several food drives by schools and local organizations had even been cancelled. Altrusa had to get creative to actually generate a broad base of food donations. Covid rules prohibited the traditional food drive method: standing at the entrances to local supermarkets and handing out lists of suggested donations to shoppers. So each member took a stack of lists to their neighborhoods and requested the neighbors’ help. It requested them to deliver the food to the member’s front door by Thursday, October 22. The response was amazing. Members met in the Food Bank’s parking lot, masks in place and cars and trucks full of all kinds of basic food, some treats, and sundries…TP, paper towels, dish and laundry soap. It took over an hour just to unload it all. According to Coen, October is usually the lowest month for donations, and with unemployment hovering over 10% in Pierce County, the demand on FISH has accelerated.