County food coalition marks start at Colfax

The newly-formed Whitman County Food Coalition met in the Colfax Food Pantry Aug. 3, with more than 40 people present. The group's mission is “Working together to provide access to food for everyone in Whitman County.”

The newly-formed Whitman County Food Coalition had its first meeting last week, with more than 40 people attending.

The coalition formed in July with a meeting to see who might be interested in working to solve food issues on the Palouse.

“It was people who were interested in making sure there was food access for all,” Council on Aging Executive Director Paige Collins told the Gazette last month. “Finally, it was just more than me thinking about it.”

Collins was surprised when she moved from western Washington to eastern Washington that there was not a food coalition here, but a recent League of Women Voters poverty study revealed that groups would be interested in forming one.

“We had such a great meeting,” Collins said of the first official meeting Aug. 3. “We had 28 RSVPs, and 42 people showed up. We were not prepared for that many people, but we were thrilled to pieces to have all those people there.”

Seven of the 12 Whitman County food pantries were in attendance, as was Ninth District Representative Mary Dye.

“Rep. Mary Dye was there, and I appreciate that so much,” said Collins. “She promised she'd bring it back to our two other state reps, Rep. Joe Schmick and Senator Mark Schoesler.”

Other groups in attendance included the library, League of Women Voters, YMCA, growers at the Runner Bean Ranch and Backyard Harvest. Local town representatives were also present, including Dave Gilman from Endicott, Wayne Miller from LaCrosse, Ranae Jackson from Colton/Uniontown, Charlotte and Don Snekvik from Palouse, Jim Woomach and Penny Martinez from Garfield, Barb Mays from the Community Action Center in Pullman and Gail McNeilly plus two of her volunteers from the Colfax food pantry, Collins said.

Collins said the meeting was a great time for brainstorming.

“It turned out to be awesome. We went way overtime with so many good ideas,” she said. “We had pantries that were sharing trends and some of the challenges they were facing.”

Collins said she shared a “spiel about coalition benefits.”

“If we advocate for emergency food as a coalition it makes a greater impact,” she said.

She shared with the Gazette last month that earlier this year she and one other person were the only ones from Whitman County who attended Hunger Action Day in Olympia.

“If 10 of us go to Olympia for Hunger Action Day in January and if they see that we formed a coalition, it might give us some pull,” she said. “It's so far for us, and it's hard, but I'm hoping maybe we could get a bus load.”

One of the focuses right now will be on forming committees within the coalition. Collins said this will include an executive committee, as well as possible grant writing and advocacy subcommittees and a pantry group made up of the Whitman County pantries.

“We could have five, or we could have two,” said Collins of the subcommittees. “We might have just a pantry group. They can talk about troubles, wins, etc. They can figure out what they want the coalition to be for them.”

Collins said she is very optimistic about the potential of what the coalition can do for Whitman County.

“There was a lot of excitement,” she said. “We have good things happening.”

The next meeting of the coalition will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, at the Colfax Food Pantry.