Rainier Valley Food Bank doesn't let size matter | Community Spirit

The Rainier Valley Food Bank is small.

While wrapping up a day of serving seniors and people with disabilities, a dozen volunteers carrying boxes squeeze around each other and rows of haphazard shelving, buckling and tipping under the weight of food.

While interviewing Rainier Valley Food Bank Executive Director Sam Osborne near the freezer in the back of the food bank, we are quickly but politely brushed aside by volunteers with boxes. We move to another area only to find ourselves in the way of volunteers returning their nametags. A third location conflicts with volunteers grabbing their coats.

Make no mistake, the Rainier Valley Food Bank is small. But, this tiny building is, in the words of one volunteer, a salvation to more than 10,000 people from the Central District to Skyway every month.

With the help of a supportive community and team of volunteers, the food bank makes it work.

“It’s nothing short of miraculous really,” Osborne said.

During the annual Hunger Action Week March 21 to March 25, the United Way of King County will be raising money for the Rainier Valley Food Bank, the fourth busiest food bank in the city.

The money raised will be used to purchase new shelving and pallet racks and to install a new freezer.

The current shelves are broken, sagging and bent. And, their arrangement only allows the food bank to store enough food for the week with no reserve stores.

“It’s really actually a risk,” Osborne said. “These shelves are not really built to handle this volume of food.”

The food bank, which opened in 1990 at 4205 Rainier Ave. S., is vastly important to its clients.

“It’s a salvation for them,” said Kathy Smith, who has been volunteering at the Rainier Valley Food Bank for 15 years. “So many are very, very low income and seniors. It just helps to make ends meet.”

Osborne said he has heard from a number of clients, including homeless people with diabetes, that the food bank means the different between life and death for them.

“When I hear things like that, it just fills my heart and makes everything we put into it worth it,” he said.

The food bank, which has only three employees, relies on more than 1,400 volunteer hours every month.

“We have amazing people who come from Rainier Beach and Rainier Valley and Mount Baker and all areas in between,” Osborne said.

On March 16, Kentlake High School student Katelyn Woodward was volunteering at the Rainier Valley Food Bank for the first time, earning community service hours.

She said she definitely wants to return to help and was surprised to see how many different cultures utilized the food bank’s services.

Osborne said 98118 is the most diverse zip code in the United States. It’s important to the food bank to be able to offer culturally appropriate food, in addition to high-quality, healthy food, both of which are appreciated by its clients, he said.

During her decade and a half at the Rainier Valley Food Bank, Smith said she has seen big changes in the needs of the food bank as the community it serves changes. The need for diapers, especially in larger sizes, has increased, as has the amount of rice the food bank distributes, she said.

But, according to Smith, one thing hasn’t changed: the food bank needs more donations. She said it is just barely making it week to week – whatever comes in goes out immediately.

Even more than food or diapers, money is the one thing the Rainier Valley Food Bank needs more than anything, Osborne said. He said food banks are able to quadruple the value of a dollar by going through wholesalers.

The need for food banks is increasing because of a declining economy and the rising cost of groceries, healthcare and fuel, according to the Rainier Valley Food Bank. In 2009, the food bank was distributing an average of 14,000 pounds of food every day. Last year, it was even more.

Osborne said a common misconception is that people who use food banks are abusing the system. But, there are a million factors that go into why someone becomes a client, he said.

“Anyone who is willing to wait in line for three hours in the cold and wet to get food for their families – I’m not going to argue that,” he said.

The Rainier Valley Food Bank is open for seniors and people with disabilities from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays. It is open to everyone else from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

Donations can be dropped off from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The Rainier Valley Food Bank is in need of volunteers to help with distribution, home delivery and more.

Join KOMO all this week in participating in United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week: 5 Days and 5 Ways to make a difference. One out of every six adults and nearly one out of four children struggle with hunger, including a growing number of people right here in the Puget Sound. You can learn more about Hunger Action Week or make a donation online.

Also, check out Martha Kang's blog as she attempts to eat on $7 per day as part of the Hunger Action Week challenge.