A Few Neighbors and a Goal
Inspired by a program in Ashland, Oregon, we launched a food collection project in Olympia in 2010. At the beginning, it was just a few neighbors gathering donations in brown paper bags.
We adopted Ashland’s three goals:
To provide a regular supply of food to hungry neighbors
To create new neighborhood connections and strengthen the community
To serve as a model for other communities
We started slowly, focusing more on building and strengthening our neighborhood and using food collection as the process. That year we collected a little over $12,000 worth of food.
When we started, our local food bank didn’t have a convenient turnaround for food delivery so they sent a van to us. Our first pickups were in a neighborhood park where we transferred donations from our green bags to banana boxes to the van. We moved to a covered play area at a neighborhood school when the winter rains hit. Slowly we outgrew the van, then a small box truck, then the largest box truck the food bank could provide. By 2018 we had expanded to over 600 donors in 13 neighborhoods in Thurston County and conveniently that year the Food Bank acquired a new warehouse and our collection point moved there. We end 2023 with 56 neighborhoods that include 2 churches and a group from Providence Hospital.
Our Project is now a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and our volunteers include families, students and retirees. Ashland continues to be our mentor and we provide mentorship to several projects from Orange County California to Bellingham, Washington.
The heart, soul and energy of our project are our volunteers and it is through their efforts that our project has blossomed with very little cost. We are also grateful to the Thurston County Food Bank for their guidance and support.
The Thurston Talk recently published this article about us:
Food, Friends, Fun:
Create Heartfelt Connections through the Thurston County Food Project
– ThurstonTalk