SPOKANE, Wash. — Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, and shoppers may face sticker shock when buying their holiday meal items this year. Economists expect families to spend more on Thanksgiving this year.
Meanwhile, Second Harvest, a food bank for food banks serving the Inland Northwest, is preparing for a busy season with a donation of 40,000 pounds of food from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The organization’s donation is expected to arrive Thursday afternoon.
Second Harvest is preparing for a demanding stretch of the year. The organization acts as a food bank for food banks, distributing donated and purchased food to local pantries across the region. Recently, its shelves have looked bare.
Eric Williams of Second Harvest said smaller pantries want a wider variety of food that does not need refrigeration. “They don’t have a lot of cold storage space, and they are always saying if you could get us more dry, more shelf-stable, this sort of variety, that is just fantastic.”
The LDS Church is a major partner for Second Harvest and regularly makes food donations to the organization’s food distribution center.
“The network is already in place at Second Harvest. They have the trucks and the relationships to get the food all the way across the Inland Northwest,” said Tim Cobb, President of the Spokane Stake of the LDS Church.
By investing in farms and processing facilities, the church has been able to produce food at a lower price. “We find it as our opportunity to really start from the dirt all the way to the shelves and helping people have enough food not just in the holiday season but all throughout the year,” Cobb explained.
Second Harvest then distributes that food to food banks across the Inland Northwest, serving millions of meals a year.
If you are interested in helping Second Harvest, you can volunteer time at the organization, drop off food at the Second Harvest warehouse, or make a monetary donation through this link.
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