Fruit Valley’s new Community Kitchen on a recent Thursday evening. Nathan Howard/The Columbian Photo Gallery
Tony Fantozzi emerged from the new Community Kitchen food pantry at Fruit Valley Village excited about cooking. “I did great,” he said, hefting two bulging plastic bags of groceries to his car. “I’m going to start cooking soon. This will come in handy.”
Fantozzi said he’s been living in a tent in the vicinity of Share House for more than two years now, but he’s eager to move up in the world. “I’m 65; I don’t want to be doing this forever,” he said. But until things start looking up for Fantozzi, the Community Kitchen provides what he needs to cook on his own camping stove.
One door east of the Community Kitchen is the new Lighthouse Community Credit Union, bringing financial services and savings accounts to low- and moderate-income Fruit Valley people whose modest assets are generally overlooked by traditional banks. A couple doors west is the long-standing Minit Mart that will undergo renovation and expansion soon — adding a teaching kitchen where neighbors can learn to cook healthy food, according to developer and property owner Don Rhoads.
The common goal at Fruit Valley Village is lifting up the local population, according to Lighthouse board member Brett Bryant. “It’s a collaboration across a lot of different organizations … to address the root causes of hunger and poverty,” he said. “Access to food and access to services is the path to transformation.”
“The (Minit Mart) store has been here since 1968,” Rhoads said. “It’s a well-traveled corner and it’s part of the fabric of the Fruit Valley community. We realized it’s a great place to develop into more than just a store. We’re trying to provide infill that really serves this community.”
Plus, he said, there’s one more vacant space at Fruit Valley Village, all the way to the west, that will probably become a restaurant or cafe.
On the other side
The Fruit Valley neighborhood is literally on the other side of the railroad tracks from the rest of Vancouver. There are two convenience stores — and Rhoads’ Minit Mart has been emphasizing fresh produce, he said — but there’s nowhere to go on a real family grocery run. The closest supermarket is 1.6 miles away on Main Street.
“There’s a lot going on in this vibrant neighborhood, but it’s pretty isolated. There’s nothing at all going on with grocery stores,” said Alan Hamilton, the executive director of the Clark County Food Bank. “It’s not the easiest place to live.”
Picture a working parent without a car who arrives home in Fruit Valley by public transportation, Hamilton said. That parent picks up the kids and ushers them aboard another bus — then transfers to yet another bus — to reach the grocery store. They do their shopping. Then it’s two buses and a transfer to get home again. By now it’s 8:30 or even 9 p.m.
“Not an easy night for a single parent,” Hamilton said. The Clark County Food Bank has long distributed some food to hungry local families through the neighborhood school’s community resource center and the River’s Edge Church here, but Hamilton said he was eager for more continuous hours. The school and the church are often closed, he pointed out.
“I wanted Fruit Valley to get more of the food it needs. And I wanted to leverage more” social services and resources for the community too, he said.
Best practices
The long open hours Hamilton wants for the Community Kitchen haven’t come to fruition just yet. After a soft opening a few months ago, the food pantry is open for three stretches each week: Noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Thursday nights are usually peak hours, with as many as 30 clients coming through, according to volunteer Patti Boehlke.
Folks sign in at the front desk, wait their turn for an available shopping cart and tour the shelves and coolers exactly as if this was any other supermarket. That’s what’s considered a best practice in the world of food banking these days — because it empowers consumers to shop with dignity and make their own choices, said Clark County Food Bank program manager and site supervisor Emily Kaleel.
Hate carrots? Skip ’em, Kaleel said. Love fruit? Then by all means, load up.
“It makes it a little harder on our end” in terms of tracking supplies, Hamilton said, “but that’s the way it should be.”
Here’s what’s different than regular shopping: On the way out, roll your cart or drop your bags onto a big scale by the counter, where your cargo gets weighed. “We track the number of pounds that go out the door,” said Kaleel.
As food pantries tend to do, the Community Kitchen has already made dedicated volunteers out of its own needy clients. “Almost all the volunteers are clients,” Hamilton said. “They help make it happen, they stock the shelves and sweep up. They’re not required but they want to do it. I’m dazzled by that level of participation and character.”
He’s talking about folks like Kimberly King, who has lived in Fruit Valley all her life, and Konstantsiya Radomsky, who’s been here for just a few years. When The Columbian stopped by on a busy Thursday night, both were gladly guiding their neighbors around the place. Between the two of them, they’ve got Fruit Valley’s local tongues well covered: Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish and English. After Boehlke gave an orientation talk to the folks lined up in the lobby, she turned to Radomsky for immediate translation.
“No problem. Everybody understands,” Radomsky said with a smile.
The Community Kitchen is “a true blessing for a community that is so much in need,” said King. “I have had people crying and saying ‘Thank you so much, this has changed my life.’ Hearing those stories really moves me.”
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