This year’s Interservice Walk & Knock food drive did what organizers dared hope it would do: set a new record.
In 2002, the all-volunteer effort topped the charts with 155 tons of donated food. This year’s 25th anniversary food drive reached a new peak: 162 tons.
That’s a 15 percent increase over last year’s total, according to Joe Pauletto, president of Interservice Walk & Knock. “We’re seven tons over our previous record,” he said.
Plus, Pauletto predicted that a final tally of the cash donations still trickling in will amount to approximately $25,000. That cash will go to the Clark County Food Bank, which can use it to supplement the food donations it received through Walk & Knock.
Those donations were scooped off of stoops and front porches all over Clark County on Dec. 5, hauled directly to a warehouse owned by the Port of Vancouver, divvied up and distributed to Clark County’s 15 food pantries.
“I didn’t know for sure” that this year’s Walk & Knock effort really could hit a new high, said Pauletto. Last year, when times already were tough, he said, the food drive collected 141 tons. This year, organizers were painfully aware that the need has grown during the worst economic recession in decades, but so has the tendency to pinch pennies — and, perhaps, pantries .
“It’s really great that the community stepped forward, knowing the economy was bad,” said James Fitzgerald, manager of the Clark County Food Bank’s Stop Hunger warehouse.
Pauletto said there were 4,500 volunteers this year, including many high school students and kids from athletic organizations.
“We need all of them,” he said, “and I applaud the coaches and youth leaders who encouraged their kids to be involved.”
Walk & Knock makes a good seasonal story, Pauletto pointed out, but the need for food donations is continuous.
“We only do this once a year but the need is all year-round,” he said. “What I like to suggest is continuing to make donations once a month. Tithe yourself to the food banks. Take something out of your pantry, find a food bank to give it to, and give.”
Listings of local food banks are included at the Walk & Knock Web site and the Clark County Food Bank’s new Web site: www.walkandknock.org and www.clarkcounty foodbank.org.
