OLYMPIA, Wash — Washington officials said there is a “soaring” need for food assistance in the state with more than 2 million residents seeking help.
On April 7, Philanthropy Northwest and Gov. Jay Inslee's office teamed up to launch the WA Food Fund. The fund is a statewide relief effort to keep food banks and pantries stocked during the coronavirus pandemic.
The WA Food Fund has raised around $3 million, but the state estimates at least another $11 million is needed to meet the demand.
Washington Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison said during a press conference Thursday there has been a “struggle” over the past six weeks to supply food to the state’s at-risk population for food security.
Donations to food banks and pantries have recently dropped by 70% as restaurants and grocery stores cannot donate as they did before the COVID-19 crisis.
“We figure we’re needing to provide about $6 million of food a week. That’s just food, per week, to be able to meet this demand,” said Sandison.
Sandison said the population has “grown significantly” since the coronavirus crisis began, and it is expected to continue to grow.
“We believe at the present time, more than two times the baseline number of visitors to food pantries and food banks are occurring in the state of Washington. So, it essentially doubled, and it occurred very quickly,” said Sandison. “Virtually within two weeks we were seeing this tremendous increase in demand and it overwhelmed our existing capabilities to supply food to the at-risk population.”
To help meet the rising demand for food assistance, any business, organization, or individual that can is asked to donate to the WA Food Fund to help fill the critical gap before federal assistance is received. CEO of Philanthropy Northwest Kiran Ahuja said nearly 5,000 individuals have donated to the fund so far.
“Right now, we have a goal of $11 million to raise to be able to provide those resources to supplement the gap in resources to get us to the time where June and July, those federal resources will be kicking in,” said Ahuja.
The state provided an initial $10 million in disaster response funding to the Department of Agriculture in April. Leslie Connelly, Budget Assistant to Governor Inslee for Natural Resources at Washington State Office of Financial Management, said the funding was approved as part of the 2020 legislative session for the state’s novel coronavirus response.
Connelly said the money from the state’s rainy day fund went “mostly to purchase food, as well as to increase our support for the partner organizations that the department contracts with for the Emergency Food Assistance Program.” The program usually receives around $6 million in annual support.
Sandison said a partnership between Northwest Harvest, Food Lifeline, Second Harvest, and the Washington State Department of Agriculture Food Assistance Program collectively provides food to between 450 to 500 food panties and other outlets around the state.