Cost of living upward trend is cited as a driver in Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties
Mike Cohen describes it as shocking: the estimate that 20 to 25% of community members across Whatcom County may be regularly using a local food bank.
Cohen, the executive director of Bellingham Food Bank (BFB), said food bank usage has risen dramatically since 2019. Across the state of Washington, visits are up 70%. In Whatcom County, it’s 170%. At the Bellingham Food Bank itself, visits have increased 200% in the last half decade.
While there are interconnected reasons to explain the surge, the main driver is likely a simple one.
“The cost of living just continues to grow and go up faster than almost anyone’s income,” Cohen said. “Housing costs are often listed as the biggest [factor for food bank visits], but the inflation of groceries has pushed a whole lot more people our direction.”
A variety of shoppers
Every week, Cohen said, people who once never thought they’d use a food bank find themselves at the BFB pantry at 1824 Ellis Street, maximizing their food budget during 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. shopping hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Some of them, Cohen added, used to donate to the food bank in better times.
While BFB has typically seen a lot of people who’d lost jobs or had hours significantly reduced, staffers are now hearing more and more stories of shoppers who feel they can’t get by on what they’re earning: Their income hasn’t necessarily changed much, but how far that income can cover basic needs has, Cohen said.
Other shoppers include those who make too much to qualify for SNAP benefits but not enough to properly feed their families when other living expenses have been accounted for. Among most people’s budgets, Cohen said, food spending usually has the most flexibility.
“If your landlord raises your rent, you’re either getting a new place to live, or you pay that rent increase,” he said. “But everyone who goes to a grocery store has some choice in how much they’re going to spend at that grocery store, and what they buy.”
More and more people, he said, are choosing to maximize budgets by getting at least some of their food for free. Those shopping at BFB are likely leaving the store with $50 to $75 of food, Cohen added.
The ethnicity of shoppers is as diverse as the reasons why they’re coming to the food bank. Cohen said about a third of BFB users seek out foods for Hispanic dishes, while another 10 to 15% identify as Eastern European, Russian and Ukrainian. Roughly half of BFB’s clients are refugees, immigrants or members of racial minority groups, he added.
Widespread regional needs
At the Salvation Army Food Bank in Anacortes, the number of customers increased 28% in the last fiscal year (October 2023 to September 2024), said Executive Director Brett Harrison. Food assistance demand fell off slightly from the record numbers of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrison said, but is now increasing again.
“It’s growing right back up to COVID-[era] numbers, which is unbelievable,” she said.
Salvation Army’s food bank is also a hub for additional social services including financial assistance and seasonal toy donations, and serves many thousands. Harrison said 5,000 people used food resources in the last fiscal year, excluding another several hundred who received specially prepared holiday food boxes for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The boxes contain turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, gravy and extras like noodles, beans and bread, which can be used to incorporate leftover turkey into additional meals.
In more rural places like Whatcom County’s Peaceful Valley, the Foothills Food Bank (FFB) serves nearly 300 families weekly from the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center. Because nearby stores are few and transportation is limited, a large percentage of FFB customers count on the food bank for most or all of their weekly groceries, said board member Nathan Schaetzel.
Even in the San Juan Islands, things are busy. At the Friday Harbor Food Bank on San Juan Island, manager Rachelle Radonski said that because of the influx of summer residents, it’s hard to know exactly what percentage of the island’s population size uses the food bank. But food bank visits have increased each year since 2021.
Why not enough?
While all the food banks mentioned in this article report increases in monetary and food donations during the holiday season, each also contends with the fact it is not enough to alleviate the year-round food insecurity of its clients.
In the San Juans, Radonski said their biggest obstacle is transportation.
“We pay high dollar for shipping most of our food and supplies to the island, and with the ever-deteriorating ferry system, that is getting tougher and tougher,” she said.
To help, the Friday Harbor Food Bank partners with mainland organizations like Charlie’s Produce, which offers a program in which they can “piggyback” on an existing incoming shipment for the island’s other grocery stores, she added.
At Foothills Food Bank, Schaetzel said being a rural food bank in an unincorporated area means they are without the contributing tax fund of a city, which many food banks use to supplement supplies. Foothills relies more on individual donations and county funds that many other Whatcom County food banks, he added.
But even in Bellingham, Cohen said the biggest obstacle to getting their clients enough of the food they need, want and deserve simply comes down to money.
The previous food bank model of pushing donations, he said, is no longer enough. And even though food drives do bring in lots of canned goods, many shoppers understandably don’t want to subsist on them. Perishable items — like fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products like milk and eggs, and meat-based proteins that can be frozen — are not available in the quantities clients need.
“That is what our shoppers want to eat,” he said. “It’s what they’re being told by their doctors they should be eating. And unless you’re buying [all your] food, you’re probably not going to find enough of that type of stuff in food banks unless [those places] have the capacity to purchase it.”
In Anacortes, Harrison said the Salvation Army Food Bank has a large freezer and refrigerator section that can accommodate such perishables. Still, they often get inundated with canned goods and shelf-stable items like peanut butter, jellies and boxes of macaroni and cheese.
And despite the fact the Salvation Army is a well-known organization, Harrison said the Anacortes facility finished last year with a $140,000 deficit because donations were down and expenses were up.
Despite the ubiquity of Salvation Army kettles outside grocery stores, Harrison said they only bring in about 10% of their annual operational budget. This means they rely heavily on year-round donations and city grants to continue offering services.
“When donations aren’t coming in, food-wise, we have to buy those things,” she said. “We just had to buy about 80 turkeys to supplement the rest of our food boxes for Thanksgiving, to make up for the donations we didn’t get.”
In Whatcom County at least, the next two years will bring at least some improvement in food bank funding.
The Whatcom County Council voted to increase the county government’s Whatcom County Food Bank Network contribution by more than 500%, from $138,000 to $750,000. County food banks received $1.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in past years
Ways to help
Bellingham Food Bank has figured out methods aside from traditional pantry shopping to help local food insecurity.
Their home delivery program, which serves more than 900 people throughout Whatcom County, began during the pandemic. Cohen said it opened BFB’s eyes to the challenges that many have in getting to an actual food bank. While some people may be housebound due to health challenges, many more struggle with general transportation issues and fitting a food bank stop into their schedules.
The mobile program doesn’t operate when Bellingham Public Schools close for weather-related reasons, and the service is currently popular enough to have a short wait list. Those who sign up can usually get on the delivery list within a couple weeks, Cohen added.
But the biggest challenge for the program is having enough volunteers willing to make deliveries, which are conducted every Friday morning. Using their own vehicles, volunteers will deliver about nine boxes of food in about 90 minutes along whichever route they are responsible for, Cohen said.
In addition to volunteering, the traditional methods of monetary and food donation are always welcome, he added. Money can be donated online via card, through checks by mail, or in person at the BFB’s rear donation door.
When it comes to food donations, Cohen suggests shelf-stable foods that are minimally processed and fairly common in food cultures around the world.
“A bag of rice or a bag of dried pinto beans is probably going to have more appeal with more of our shoppers than that strange can of food you bought at the grocery store and then never used,” he said.
At the Salvation Army in Anacortes, 100% of all donations stay within Skagit County, serving multiple areas in need. Any donation earmarked for a specific purpose, Harrison said, it always put towards that purpose.
The Anacortes-based food bank is also lucky to have a partnership with Simple Gesture, a red bag program providing additional food.
At a time of year when blessings are often counted, Harrison said they’re still thankful for every dollar and donation.
“We’re very lucky to live in such a wonderful community that’s so giving,” she said. “I know that other communities are really struggling to find food. It’s just tough right now for everybody.”
— By Matt Benoit
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Connecting Skagit’s food producers and food needs,” Jan. 15, 2024
• “Reducing food waste: part of the food insecurity solution,” Oct. 8, 2023
• “Empty cupboards, new anxieties increase with rising food insecurity,” April 7, 2023
• “Local food banks have been addressing a hunger crisis — even before COVID,” Feb. 5, 2021