The Montesano Food Bank wants to thank everyone who participated in Food Bowl 2018 and a special thanks to April Pocklington, who took on the responsibility of overseeing the entire operation this year. She supervises the Montesano High School Associated Student Body officers, which consists of eight student leaders at the school. Special thanks also to Jill Schrader, who heads up the leadership class and assists with supervising the students.

The leadership class students are amazing and are responsible for organizing, managing and coordinating the entire Food Bowl.

In two short weeks, these individuals managed to collect somewhere between 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of food. (At the weigh in, the scales indicated about 4,000 pounds, which was definitely bogus. Something went haywire, so the actual weight is a guesstimate, based on our experience with earlier Food Bowls.) In addition, they collected more than $30,000 in cash. Think about it, this was accomplished in just 14 days!

None of this would be possible without the help from the community. Montesano is a wonderful place to live and individuals, groups and businesses really step up with donations. So thank you for doing your part. We could not continue to operate without your continued support. As you all know, prices continue to rise and our expenses go up accordingly. Being able to buy the items we need is very helpful, so the cash donations are especially appreciated.

I also want to thank Police Chief Brett Vance for helping secure four trustees from the County Jail to assist in the sorting and stacking of the donated food items. We sorted all the donated food in a little over 4 hours. There was a total of about 17 people to make that possible, 13 of them were my dedicated volunteers from the Food Bank. These folks donate countless hours throughout the year to help make the Food Bank function.

So, thank you to everyone who participated in the Food Bowl, especially the students. This year was the best year for stacking and organizing the truck. Everything was packed and stacked neatly and that made unloading much easier. Excellent job!

Doug Iverson

Director and president,Montesano Food Bank