Sign up for holiday baskets

Hi, this is Doug from from the Montesano Food Bank. Because of many factors, we are implementing some minor changes in our operation in an attempt to be thrifty. In the past, we estimated the number of Thanksgiving and Christmas Baskets. (Each basket costs between $35 to $40.) This year we are having people sign up ahead of time. If you want a Thanksgiving or Christmas Basket, you need to sign up prior to Oct. 31, 2018. We realize that this is new, but please keep in mind our donations are down and we need to be as frugal as we can. Please pass the word to our clients so they get signed up for the Holiday Baskets.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the many people who help us provide for those in our community who depend on us to help stretch their resources. There are too many to mention individually, but they know who they are. Several people drop off donations on a regular basis. We have many local gardeners who bring in fresh fruit and produce each week. Each Friday, we look like a Saturday Market, complements of the many local gardeners.

I want to thank Mark at Thriftway, for providing us with deliveries each week and giving us some discounts to keep our costs down. This helps keep the donated monies local and support local businesses. Coastal Harvest makes deliveries twice a month, which includes food from Northwest Harvest and the Federal Commodities. Without this, our shelves would be much emptier and we would not be able to provide the quantity of food we currently do.

Last but not least, I want to thank the community and the twenty or so volunteers who show up each week to assist. We have an extraordinary group of volunteers who donate many hours of their time. Montesano is a very generous community and we appreciate every donation that comes in. This is why we are implementing some minor tweaks to stretch the funds that we have. The Montesano Food Bank has no paid positions so every dollar received goes back into the operation. Thank you.

Doug Iverson

Montesano Food Bank director