A 12 • Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
LE ADER SPECIAL FOCUS
‘We are where we are’
Brinnon Food Bank featured in video
KATIE KOWALSKI NEWS@PTLEADER.COM
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estled in thick evergreens woods and surrounded by rivers, Brinnon is the last place where one would think of the word “desert.” But when it comes to daily food access, Brinnon is barren. It’s a “food desert,” specifically. The term is a federal designation, and it applies to Brinnon because the small town is situated about 40 miles away from any grocery store. Within this low-income pocket of Jefferson County, where the population is just over 800 and driving 80 miles for meals is costly, the Brinnon Food Bank flourishes. Run by Eloise and Michael Langenbach and more than 30 volunteers, the food bank serves about nine families (200 people) a week. This summer, the food bank was spotlighted in a short video produced by New York organization WhyHunger in partnership with Hunger Is and with Northwest Harvest, a Washington state program that supplies food to Brinnon and other state food banks twice a month. The video demonstrates what Northwest Harvest is doing statewide to alleviate hunger in partnership with food banks like Brinnon’s.
HUNGRY KIDS “It was pretty eye-opening for them just how far away from the city of Seattle we are,” said Eloise Langenbach of what she observed when the WhyHunger crew arrived to document on a Tuesday this past June. Langenbach said someone from Northwest Harvest pitched Brinnon’s food bank as one to feature because of the community it exemplified: a community where everyone helps each other, she said. It also was chosen as a successful example of the recently implemented Northwest Harvest Kids Summer Program, which is featured in the video. “It is a great program,” Langenbach said of the summer food program that fills hungry bellies when kids are out of school. From June 1 to Sept. 1 of this year, 25 kids ranging in age from 3 to 18 benefited, Langenbach said. Students do not need to be enrolled in a school to participate, only to prove a need for food. SENIORS FREQUENT PATRONS Some of the aims of the partnership project that produced the video are to confront the
This photo, taken on a day of filming at the Brinnon Food Bank, shows Jennifer Filmer and her son, Brennan, who are food bank patrons. “She has been one of the most quiet people I’ve ever known – she has just become herself,” said food bank director Eloise Langenbach of Filmer. “This has just been remarkable to see her blossom like that.” The Brinnon Food Bank was recently featured in a WhyHunger video on its website. The video focuses on food banks that partner with Northwest Harvest, a statewide program, to alleviate hunger. Photo courtesy WhyHunger.org
For more information Watch the film: tinyurl.com/yboromsv Visit the food bank: The food bank is open every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Brinnon Community Center at 306144 U.S. Highway 101.
WAVE gets bigger
A free Thanksgiving dinner is planned for 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 23, also at the community center. All are welcome to attend and bring something to share. For reservations, call Sandy at the center at 796-4350.
root causes of hunger and also address food waste. In Brinnon, Langenbach said, it’s the cost of gas to travel and buy food coupled with lack of employment that drives people to the food bank. “[Brinnon is] not a place to look for employment, unless you cut wood or do yard maintenance or gutter cleaning,” she said. This June, Brinnon distributed 15,877 pounds of food to 731 people: 16 infants, 131 children, 217 adults and 367 seniors. Langenbach pointed out that it’s the seniors, paying their medical bills and on fixed incomes, who are the most frequent patrons. As for food waste, that isn’t a problem at the Brinnon Food Bank. When fruits and veggies start going bad, they’ll give them to a neighboring farmer for livestock. “We recycle everything,” Langenbach said. Recently, when a Food Service of America (FSA) truck tipped over while traveling over the pass and all the frozen food spilled onto the
Eloise Langenbach manages the food bank along with her husband, Michael. Photo courtesy WhyHunger.org
AS LONG AS IT TAKES Langenbach said that she, like many, loves the area of Brinnon, but mourns its lack of opportunity and wants to see a business established that would put inexperienced people to work. She’d
highway, Langenbach’s son, who works for FSA, called his parents to see if they wanted food that would otherwise be disposed of. “We loaded over 4,000 pounds of food for our food bank,” Langenbach said.
Brinnon Food Bank, along with the Port Townsend, TriArea and Quilcene food banks, benefited from the WAVE Food Drive that is organized each year by area churches. “We were really pleased this year,” said Eloise Langenbach, co-manager of the Brinnon Food Bank. The final financial total for the WAVE Food Drive is $22,748, a 60 percent increase over last year’s total of $14,182, according to WAVE coordinator Skip Cadorette and Jefferson County Food Bank Association board president Philip Flynn. The board also reported a nonperishable-food donation weight of 1,800 pounds. Last year, the total amount of nonperishable food donated weighed 1,589 pounds. Cadorette noted that Ann Bambrick and her Kala Point neighbors outdid themselves by raising a total of $12,025. “This is an excellent return on all of our efforts,” said Cadorette in an email of thanks. “Thank you to everyone for making it possible for our hungry neighbors to fill their cupboards with not only food, but dignity and neighbor-love.”
60 Years of
United Good Neighbors of Jefferson County United Good Neighbors’ 60th Anniversary Campaign continues! By giving to UGN you give to local nonprofits across Jefferson County working to meet the basic human needs of those who need it most. It’s not too late! Give today at www. weareugn.org or mail your check to our office.
also love to see a day clinic so seniors in particular didn’t have to drive to town as often. “We are where we are, and we chose to be here,” she said. “But there’s a lot of people that didn’t choose to live the life they’re leading. You just don’t know when things are going to turn your life around.” Langenbach told a story of one woman who had in the past been a volunteer of the food bank. She now has brain cancer and is undergoing her third round of chemotherapy, traveling to Seattle for treatment. “Now she’s a patron [of the food bank],” Langenbach said. “That’s what we’re there for.” The food bank is there to help in any way it can, and Langenbach is deeply appreciative of support it’s received both local and statewide. She’s also proud of her 33 volunteers, who help out weekly and drive about 4,500 miles a month to pick up food. “How long can you do this?” Langenbach, who is 73, said she sometimes asks herself. She paused, then answered: “I guess as long as it takes.”
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