By Monica Brown, Tulalip Communications Department
Marysville Community Food Bank received a larger donation this year from The Tulalip Tribes. The $20,000 donation will benefit many people during these holiday seasons. Steve Gobin agreed,
“This is a larger than normal donation for us, but we understand that there’s a growing need in this community, the homeless population is growing every day. We’d like to help the citizens of Marysville who have been such big contributors to our own economic enterprises, and the most effective way of doing that is to help those in need stay alive, and to help their kids stay healthy.”
With a regular annual donation of $15,000 to the Marysville Community Food Bank, the extra $5,000 will contribute to the “Food for Thought” program, which began in May of 2012, to expand to three schools. As quoted in the Marysville Globe, Amy Howell, coordinator of the “Food for Thought” program, describes how the additional monies will benefit students at Liberty, Shoultes and Quil Ceda Elementary Schools
Amy Howell explains the process of how a child is included into the program, “They (the children) were chosen through input from their teachers, counselors, principal and lunchroom staff; their families sign permission slips to approve them for the program, and nobody above the school level knows which students they are, aside from the ones that I’ve met with personally, so nobody feels like they’re being singled out.”
With the impending addition of students from Shoultes and Quil Ceda, 25 from each school and 30 students from Liberty who are already served by the program, Howell has already met her enrollment goal for the spring of 2013, and is eager to serve more students who would otherwise go hungry between the close of school one day and the opening of school the next day. The “Food for Thought” program helps to relieve childhood hunger by providing nutritious weekend meals to students during the school year.
Marysville Community Food Bank Director Dell Deierling, as quoted from the Marysville Globe, explained that the regular donation of $15,000 will go towards “filling in the gaps” of needed food items and utility payments for the winter holiday season, from Thanksgiving through Christmas and the New Year.
“The community has done an awesome job of keeping donations coming,” Deierling said. “The Tulalip Tribes have been our biggest donors since our current building was built.”
Quil Ceda Village General Manager Steve Gobin credited both the Marysville and Tulalip communities with placing a shared value on the importance of charitable giving.
Donations may be made out to Marysville Community Food Bank and sent to P.O. Box 917, Marysville, WA 98270. If you would like to designate your funds specifically for “Food For Thought,” please write in the memo line of your check the program you wish to support. Donations may also be made online at http://marysvillefoodbank.org via PayPal.