Residents looking to share the bounty of the holiday season with the less fortunate will find local food banks eager for donations.
Food banks always welcome peanut butter and canned tuna, but "holiday-dinner items are nice to have at this time of year," notes Food Lifeline spokeswoman Leslie Kelly.
This includes canned items — cranberry, yams, peas, mixed vegetables and gravy; dehydrated mashed potatoes and boxed rice pilaf.
Most grocery stores offer a coupon for full holiday meals that can be purchased and then donated to local food banks. Clients redeem them for a prepared dinner to take home, added Kelly, Lifeline's media and community-relations coordinator.
She advises folks who want to donate a frozen holiday turkey to check with their local food bank to find out if it has freezer space to store turkeys until distribution.
While homemade cookies or breads are a nice thought, food banks can't accept homemade foods, open or partially used items or noncommercially packaged items because of food-safety guidelines.
What they need
To find out what food banks most need, The Times asked three umbrella organizations that supply food banks to share their most-requested items.
Food Lifeline, www.foodlifeline.org, serving food banks in 17 Western Washington counties: high-protein foods (canned tuna, peanut butter, beef stew, canned or dry beans, canned nuts); children's favorites (macaroni and cheese, canned or boxed juices, Enfamil infant formula, diapers); canned foods (fruit, vegetables, soup, tomato products) and dry goods (rice, pasta, cereal, crackers, oatmeal, cooking spices.
Northwest Harvest, www.northwestharvest.org, a statewide agency distributing food to more than 300 food banks and meal programs in Washington: pasta, canned vegetables and fruit, baby food, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, canned meats (such as chicken or tuna), cereal, chili, soups, stews and canned or powered milk.
Hopelink, www.hope-link.org, operating several food banks in Shoreline and the Eastside: tuna or other canned meat, peanut butter, pasta, rice and cereal; soup, canned fruit and tomato products; vegetable oil; onions and potatoes; and gift certificates for grocery stores.
Stephanie Dunnewind,
Seattle Times staff reporter
sdunnewind@seattletimes.com
