While this beautiful valley continues to be an idyllic place for many of us to live, there are also many who are struggling to meet the basic needs of their families, including providing sufficient and healthy food for themselves and their children.
The Hunger Coalition's mission is to end hunger in our community by providing healthy food to those in need and to address the root causes of hunger in our community in order to not just treat it, but to prevent it. While we have made great strides in the last few years, we are currently seeing an alarming surge in the number of people who are having to make difficult choices—between feeding their families or paying the rent, between buying groceries or paying for a necessary prescription or doctor visit.
You may have recently heard about this increase in need. Economic conditions, gas prices and other factors have contributed to the dire situation that many of our working poor are facing. I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you who have heard our call for help and have answered generously in many different ways: by dropping off non-perishable food in our yellow food barrels at each of the grocery stores in town, by purchasing the $5 donation cards at the registers of all Atkinsons' stores, and by mailing contributions to help support our vital food bank, food voucher and infant formula programs.
We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to our dedicated volunteers who pick up, sort and deliver donated food on a regular and ongoing basis. I'd also like to thank our hard-working volunteer board of directors who have managed to not just keep the organization going over the last several years, but have grown it to the point that we were able to hire an executive director to help us manage the growing needs of this community. I continue to have faith that, with the help of this incredibly supportive community, we will be able to meet this new increase in demand and maintain the safety net of food security that we created in conjunction with the many other social service agencies and workers in the valley.
If you have not yet supported The Hunger Coalition's important work, please consider doing so in whatever way you can.
Visit thehungercoalition.org or call 788-0121. In addition, you are invited join us Aug. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. to directly learn more about the organization and what we are doing to help our friends and neighbors in need while we introduce our new executive director, Jeanne Liston. This gathering is at Green Antelope Gallery, 116 S. Second St., in Bellevue. If you have any questions or to RSVP for the party, please call 788-0121 or email brooke@greenantelope.net.
Brooke Bonner
The Hunger Coalition board president
