Second Harvest and COA work to secure food

COLFAX- Second Harvest has suspended distribution to Whitman County starting January, having given notice to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

The Council on Aging and Human Services in Colfax Executive Director Paige Collins confirmed that the Council on Aging picked up their December shipment of food from Second Harvest Monday, Dec. 12.

Due to the food shortage Second Harvest will not be delivering food to Whitman County's rural food pantries, including Palouse, Garfield, Oakesdale, Tekoa, Endicott, LaCrosse, St. John, Albion, Rosalia and Malden/Pine City. As well as the Community Action Center's food pantry in Pullman.

Community Partnerships Director Second Harvest, Eric Williams stated that Second Harvest is continuing to do outreach to food and financial donors, "anyone who we can let know that there is a real dire situation," he said, noting that they've been emphasizing people should donate to their local food banks. He added that they're doing everything they can to get ahold of food, "Anything people can do to help would be great. Donating food here, or to your local pantries," he said.

In concerns to the Whitman County Gazette's article published Dec. 8, Williams stated that there was an implication that Second Harvest wasn't going to contact people 30 days in advance, "that's not correct, we called and emailed 80 plus contacts including those in Whitman County," he said.

Collins is not sure at this time how it will play out concerning continuing to get distributions from Second Harvest in the future, "I don't know if we'll partner with them again, we'll have to see how it comes along."

Collins stated she's not saying working with Second Harvest is not possible, but it's to be determined, "once we get everything organized for January and beyond," she said, noting that she is not too worried about how food distribution will go moving forward.

"There should not be a gap in our service. Just from our conversations with the state, and with our friends in Moses Lake I feel like it will turn out just fine for us," Collins said.

Both Collins and Williams are working against the current issue of the national food shortage. "It's not just the non-profits struggling," Collins said, noting that COA's biggest problem right now is that though they've ordered a lot of Christmas meats from the Colfax Rosauers it's hard to get.

Williams stated that to combat the national issue Second Harvest is putting people to work full time to find food, with a new full time employee dedicated to doing that.