SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Valley Partners Food Bank (SVP) is seeing a higher demand for food donations.
SVP said their food donations have been flying off the shelves faster than they can keep the shelves stocked. The non-profit has seen a 150% increase in food donations.
SVP recently received a donation that will bring thousands of pounds of food back on their shelves and back into the homes of people in need.
“We are deeply grateful to the leaders and members of the Church for partnering with us to support our community’s most vulnerable,” said Cal Coblentz, DMin, CEO of SVP.
“These relationships strengthen our community and provide life- saving resources to many of our neighbors who struggle to meet their basic needs.”
At Spokane Valley Partners, volunteers are hard at work sorting and packaging food. But this past year, their food bank has seen some struggles. CEO Cal Coblentz has noticed record demands and low food supplies.
"Food demand has been through the roof. We've doubled our food services in the last year and a half, two years," said Coblentz.
So much demand, the food bank served 9-thousand people just last month and had to turn people away.
Overall, the need for food is up 150 percent. But this month comes a gift.
Coblentz said, "A 40,000 pound delivery that we'll get next week, which is tremendous."
The mass food delivery is all thanks to The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints. The 40,000 pound gift will be coming all the way from Utah.
The Church's communications director Jennifer Hicks said, "We know so many people are struggling to pay their rent and the increases in food costs and gas."
Hicks says a lot of the food comes straight from farms in Utah.
"The food has been grown, produced and packaged by the church," said Hicks.
This will be the third truck delivery to Spokane Valley. The last truck came in February but most of that food is gone.
"There's only a tiny bit of food left, some macaroni," said Hicks.
It's not only Spokane Valley Partners struggling, Second Harvest says in the past week they've received four times the amount of calls from people asking about food.
At Spokane Valley Partners, there's a reason why volunteers like Aiden Carter keep coming back.
Carter said, "It's always really nice to see when people are grateful for it, you can tell it means a lot for them."
Coblentz says The Church is the gift that keeps on giving. The Church helped fund an $8000 forklift charging unit.
"Someone from the church called and said, hey, we have an extra little bit extra money," said Coblentz. "Is there any project that you need?"
Coblentz is glad he will soon no longer have to turn people away. The truck is expected to arrive at 9 AM on Tuesday.
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