VIEW — On a sunny Super Bowl Sunday, cars pulled into a fire station parking lot in remote Clark County about 8 miles northeast of La Center. They began arriving about 30 minutes before the big event. When the lot was filled, cars parked in a grass field. A van well-stocked with food awaited the visitors.
Unlike many gatherings on Sunday, it wasn’t a Super Bowl party. It was a food distribution site for the Lewis River Mobile Food Bank. Six volunteers set up shop in the parking lot of Clark County Fire Station 10 in the unincorporated area called View, about halfway between La Center and Amboy. Sunday’s distribution served 26 north county families.
The Lewis River Mobile Food Bank was started by volunteers from Highland Lutheran Church in 2009. Clark County Food Bank is the main source of food for the mobile food bank that serves the far reaches of the county. Food is distributed each Sunday at a different site.
“When you get this far out in the county, access to services is a problem,” said Candice Howell, who organizes the food bank. “That’s how the mobile food bank was born — to take it to the people who need it.”
Lewis River Mobile Food Bank
• When: 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays
• Where:
First and second Sundays: 38615 N.E. 41st Ave., La Center.
Third Sunday: Yacolt Evangelical Free Church, 509 W. Cushman, Yacolt.
Fourth Sunday: La Center Evangelical Free Church, 111 E. Fifth St., La Center.
• Learn more:lewisrivermobilefoodbank.org
The folks who waited in line for food have slammed into hard times. Once a month, they gather in this parking lot for the chance to fill bags with bread and cereal, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen food, canned food and more.
“I would starve to death without it,” said Greg Shanafelt from Amboy.
He said his life changed drastically when he was injured in his construction job eight years ago. Two spinal fusions later, he can’t work, and he said, “I haven’t drawn a dime in disability. My annual income dropped from $65,000 to $12,000.”
He said he receives $80 a month in food stamps and $1,231 in Social Security benefits, but his monthly bills total more than $1,400. He lives with a friend who owns a home.
“If it weren’t for my buddy, I’d be living under a bridge,” Shanafelt said. “I spend my food stamps on meat. I try to get everything else here,” he said, looking around at the tables of food, coolers of meat and the mobile food van in the parking lot.
As he talked, he filled his bags with chicken, steak and condiments.
“Keeping clean is important,” he said, and added laundry detergent and soap to his bag, noting that he can’t pay for those items with food stamps.
A few minutes later, Shanafelt carried Sharon Fink’s groceries to her car for her. Maneuvering on a crutch, Fink said she was pleased with the food she was taking home to her large family, including her husband, son and grandchildren.
“I got a turkey and a roast that will feed all six of us,” Fink said. “We’ve been coming here for over a year. I appreciate it a lot.”
She also had potatoes, onions and other fresh vegetables and fruit. But no eggs.
“We haven’t had eggs in four months,” said volunteer Les Thornton.
He and his wife, Kathryn Thornton, are the team leaders for this food distribution site on the first Sunday of the month.
Inside the food van, volunteer Denise Wilder and her daughter, Megan Wilder, assisted people with their selections.
“Do you want chunky or creamy peanut butter?” Megan Wilder asked Ralph Barr of Amboy.
“Creamy!” Barr said. “I’ve got teenage kids at home saying, ‘I want some peanut butter. I want some mac and cheese.’ ”
Denise Wilder added two cans of tuna to his bag and said, “White albacore tuna. Good stuff today.”
She weighed his full bags and wrote on her list: 20 pounds for a family of three.
Barr said he also picks up food from the Woodland Food Bank.
Each family first checked in with volunteer Kathryn Thornton, who ensured they’re listed on the food bank’s roster. Unlike at some food banks, people don’t receive a box prepacked with foods chosen by volunteers. Instead, they choose which food their family prefers. Volunteer Candice Howell asked each family about their food preferences and filled out a shopping list according to the size of their household.
“There’s no food waste here,” Howell said. “They choose exactly what their families will eat.”
Then families began filling bags as other volunteers helped them.
Making her food selections from her motorized chair, Linda Barnes was assisted by her husband, Leonard Barnes, and son, Dale Barnes. The La Center family gets by on their Social Security benefits. They own their own home.
“Whatever’s available, we pick up,” said Leonard Barnes. “We don’t turn down anything.”
“Meat’s getting awful expensive. We got roast today,” said Linda Barnes. “If it wasn’t for the food bank, I don’t know what I’d do.”
The family also picks up food at the Neighbors Helping Neighbors food bank in Ridgefield once a month.
Because the roast was still frozen, Sunday dinner would be mac and cheese.
“Tomorrow we’ll have roast,” Barnes said.
“Food is what gets cut when money is tight,” said Howell. “Everybody deserves to eat. We’re here to ease that burden. All they have to do is come to one of our sites and tell us you need food.”
Sunday was the last time the first Sunday food distribution would happen at the Clark County Fire District 10 station in View. Beginning in March, food will be distributed from the food bank’s warehouse, 38615 N.E. 41st Ave. in La Center, on the first and second Sundays of the month.
