The closure of Sam's Club will affect more than just its workers and customers. It will also affect food banks that stock their supplies with goods from the warehouse store.
Volunteers were busy carting the last load of food from the delivery truck into the North Helpline Food Bank in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood Friday afternoon.
"The line usually lasts all day on a Saturday," said Executive Director Kelly Brown.
In the five years she's been with the organization, she's watched the booming Puget Sound economy have little impact here.
"The need is kind of as great as ever, and we hear more and more and more about housing and being pushed out and not being able to afford rents," said Brown.
This food bank feeds roughly 1,600 people a week. It takes 1.5 million pounds of food in a year, and a quarter of it comes from Sam's Club.
"All of this is from Sam's Club," said longtime volunteer Bob Hathaway as he stacked bags of rice.
It's not just rice and canned goods. The food bank has a massive freezer full of chicken and beef, helping to provide food bank visitors with a weekly source of protein. In the cooler next door, stacks of fresh fruit like oranges and apples, much of it also from Sam's Club.
"Three pickups a week and that sometimes was over 5,000 pounds in a day," said Brown.
All that is coming to an end in two weeks when the company closes its three Washington stores as part of a larger nationwide closure to downsize and put more effort into its online shopping. For Brown, it means a significant blow to her food supply, almost $500,000 worth per year. She's not panicking just yet.
"Just trying to stay calm and figure out our way forward," she said with a smile.
She hopes other grocers will and more private donations can help fill the void.
If you'd like to help, the website is www.northhelpline.org. Just click on the "Donate Now" tab at the top.
