Aleece Townsend of Wauna is trying to relieve the burden on food banks on the Key Peninsula. For more than 35 years, she has used her philanthropic energy to support those who provide the services she and her widowed mother were grateful for during the lean times of her childhood.
The Key Peninsula Food Project was designed to support the community, according to Townsend.
In 2009, after moving to the small town of Talent, Oregon, Townsend met Paul Giancarlo, who along with John Javna had founded the Ashland Food Project, a new community initiative aimed at providing regular food supplies to the Ashland Emergency Food Bank. Giancarlo and his team developed a door-to-door food collection system that made it easier for neighbors to donate food on a regular basis. Within two years, their bimonthly neighbor-to-neighbor food collection was collecting 20,000 pounds of food every two months. Today, that bimonthly total is over 30,000 pounds, with a quarter of Ashland families donating food regularly.
Townsend agreed to bring the program to Talent as a community organizer. She stayed in that role until the Almeda Fire destroyed Talent in 2020. But Townsend said that despite the destruction of her town, the devastation of the community and the forced relocation of her family, the food bank in Talent never stopped caring for her community. Today, the Green Bag Solution Food Project supports food banks in over 50 communities across the country, including Gig Harbor, where community support and involvement has been growing since 2022.
Townsend moved to Wauna in 2021 and brought the program with him, founding both the Key Peninsula Food Project and the Gig Harbor Food Project.
An estimated 30% of households are affected by food insecurity
in Washington State. Compared to other nearby counties, Pierce County has a higher rate: one in six children and one in ten adults – nearly 100,000 people – suffer from hunger on a regular basis. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s survey on food insecurity published in October
In 2023, there was a 30% increase over 2021. This increase in the number of U.S. households experiencing hunger reversed a decades-long decline. In 2021, there were 33.8 million American households. In 2022, the number rose to 44.2 million, including 13 million children and 5 million seniors. However, many more people, including millions who do not meet the definition of food insecure, are turning to the nonprofit food sector for assistance.
“Once community coordinators are hired,” Townsend said, “they reach out to neighbors and friends, who receive a reusable bag that they can fill with non-perishable food staples over a two-month period. Then, on a set day, all the bags are collected and the coordinator makes a single trip to the local food bank.”
Through a website, Facebook account and email list, donors can access their local food bank’s wish list. Typically, the lists include basic food items such as cereal, canned goods, coffee and tea, nut butter, pasta and sauces, as well as hygiene items such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and feminine hygiene products.
Coordinators commit to dedicating two hours a month. Donors commit to filling a bag every two months. Food banks are already distributing food, but resources have become scarcer due to growing needs.
Willow Eaton, executive director of Key Peninsula Community Services in Home, said the food bank expects to add more than 100 new households to its client base in 2024. In June, the bank’s programs facilitated 6,626 client visits, Eaton said.
Brett Higgins, who runs the food bank at KPCS, said they had have already received a delivery from the Gig Harbor Food Project and are looking forward to providing more food.
Sigurros Welborn of the Gig Harbor Peninsula FISH Food Bank said her experience with the Gig Harbor Food Project “has helped significantly in keeping shelves stocked, and having more people donate raises awareness as people donate not just food but their time and energy, find other ways to help and make new connections in the neighborhood.” The program strengthens the community, she said, and the practice of feeding neighbors changes perspectives and responses to hunger.
For more information, visit KeyPenFoodProject.com or GigHarborFoodProject.com. Anyone interested in becoming a coordinator can email Townsend directly at [email protected].
