Walk & Knock is going for the record.
To celebrate a quarter century of community giving, and to mark the toughest economic recession since that effort got started, the annual event’s organizers are hoping Clark County can come up with 156 tons of donated food for the hungry.
The 25th annual Inter-Service Walk & Knock, the county’s biggest single-day food drive, is set as always for the first Saturday in December. Volunteers will scour doorsteps for donations left in bags and boxes. The donations will be taken back to one of several locations for boxing and packing into trucks. The trucks will take the food to a warehouse loaned for a week by the Port of Vancouver; there, the food will be weighed and divided for pickup by local food pantries.
The record for food collected by Inter-Service Walk & Knock was set at 155 tons in 2002. The average amount is 132 tons. Last year, it was more than 140 tons (plus $35,000 in cash). But given the economic landscape and the explosion of need in every neighborhood, Walk & Knock organizers are hoping to blow right past these numbers and set a new record.
“In this recession, our local food banks need more support than ever before,” said event president Joe Pauletto. “It’s amazing how far one paper bag full of canned food will go.”
Walk & Knock supplies between One-quarter and one-third of local food banks’ total annual need, he said. That need is rising sharply: According to the central Clark County Food Bank warehouse, the number of households receiving food boxes has gone from 91,354 in fiscal 2007, to 94,599 in 2008, to 108,806 in 2009.
“This has really become the food drive of the year for many of our food banks. This is what gets the food banks and those who rely on it through the winter months,” said volunteer and former Walk & Knock organization president Stacy Walters.
“It’s the hardest time of year,” he said. “And for people who were already struggling, it’s that much worse now because of the economy today, all the unemployment and need.”
Impressive growth
A quarter century ago didn’t feel much different than right now, according to A.C. “Bud” Pasmore: A severe economic downturn had lead to layoffs, foreclosures, homelessness — and widespread hunger.
Pasmore was aware of myriad little food-collection drives and stations — barrels at banks, boxes at schools. But he figured more food would get collected if the collectors came to the donors rather than waiting for donors to make their own special effort. Initial attempts to publicize the idea and then scour the streets with Lions Club volunteers and vehicles over many days showed he was right — and promised even greater success with a bit more organization and focus.
So he and his Lions Club buddy Doug Rae pulled together a number of service clubs and civic organizations — everyone from the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs to staffers at Clark County and the city of Vancouver. Thousands of volunteers were mobilized and hundreds of thousands of pounds of food were collected — and a community tradition was born.
“It just grew phenomenally,” said Pasmore. “It just boggles your mind, it’s grown far beyond anything we ever expected.”
Walk & Knock remains driven entirely by volunteers from service clubs like the Lions, Kiwanis, Optimist, Rotary, and the Clark County Amateur Radio Club (which helps coordinate volunteer and vehicle distribution during the massive single-day effort that covers the whole county). Church clubs and Boy and Girl Scouts are also heavily involved. Plus, there are plenty of individuals and families who make a day of it.
“A community of people has grown up who participate year after year,” said Walters. “There are multiple generations of families now who’ve done this. It’s very much a community effort.”
Organizers are extending a special invitation this year to high school juniors and seniors who may be interested in volunteering. The 2009 Walk & Knock food drive has a Facebook page and a YouTube video.
If you’re interested in volunteering, visit www.walkandknock.org or call 877-995-6625 to sign up. Even if you can’t donate time, there will be a bag in today’s newspaper that can be filled with nonperishable items like tuna, peanut butter, jelly, breakfast cereal, canned soup or chili, canned fruits or vegetables, bottled juice, noodles, spaghetti sauce, sugar and flour, rice and beans, dinner mixes, and macaroni and cheese. Personal hygiene items such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo and bars of soap are welcome, too.
