Brewster Food Bank faces challenge of uncertain future

BREWSTER – The outlook for the continued one day a week operation of the Brewster Food Bank has not improved since director David Burdick’s March update to the city council.

“We are still running it weekly on Thursdays but just looking at the numbers and what we have to fall back on at this point it’s not sustainable,” said Burdick. “We’re not the only ones in that spot.”

Burdick said his recent discussions with other area food banks finds the others in a similar position.

“We are not going to have enough food to fill 100 boxes,” Burdick predicts.

A recent infusion of $7.000 of grant funds will help the Brewster facility meet its needs but it is only a short-term aid.

“We are in the process of finalizing that trying to figure out what we can spend it on,” said Burdick.

About 70 percent of the bank’s food is supplied by The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), another 26 percent comes from Northwest Harvest, with the remaining four percent from businesses and individuals.

Catholic Charities (cceasternwa.org) oversees the food bank’s finances, but some dollars are more direct.

“We have some people who go directly to Brewster Marketplace and make a donation because they have an account there,” said Burdick said. 

One dependable commodity the Brewster bank has is its group of volunteers who turn out regularly to sort, pack, and distribute food. 

“We have a good crew showing up,” said Burdick. “We have a base of about eight or nine volunteers.”

As of last November, food is no longer delivered to Brewster so volunteers with their trucks and trailers make regular trips to the Okanogan food hub to keep Brewster’s stocks available.

Burdick said he cannot predict what the local pantry will have to adjust to keep the doors open and food flowing.

“I think it is going to be a rough couple of years ahead,” Burdick said.

 Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media