Every Monday morning, volunteers arrive at Clark County Adventist Community Services to find their back courtyard trashed.
Furniture, bags of clothes and beer bottles are just some of what volunteers find week after week. Most weeks, it falls to volunteers to load what they can into the food pantry’s garbage cans; what doesn’t fit goes on the back of a truck and to the dump.
It’s a weekly ritual Eleanor Hetke has faced for eight years as the executive director of Adventist Community Services, and one that she’s had “right up to my eyeballs.”
“It’s not a question of donations,” she said. “It’s getting rid of this stuff.”
Despite bright red signs asking people not to dump their furniture, electronics and appliances, Hetke and other volunteers have found huge televisions and mattresses waiting for them. The group only takes donations of food and clothes, and the small office doesn’t have the space to take furniture.
An average trip to the dump costs $30, Hetke said, a high bill for a donation-funded nonprofit. The organization also cannot afford cameras or a fence to try to stop the wrongdoers.
“You can imagine how discouraging it is to have to start our busy day cleaning up messes like this,” Hetke said. “People seem to think that if there are dumpsters on the property, it is an open invitation to dump their trash there.”
Nearby residents in the Rose Village neighborhood have done what they can to support the food pantry, Hetke said. Mark Maggoria, who lives across the street, said he’s been able to stop some of the dumps before they happen. Those he confronts have always complied, he said.
“Everything and anything gets dumped there,” Maggoria said. “Most often it happens very late at night or very early in the morning. My dog alerts me most often to the activity if she happens to be outside.”
Maggoria said the neighborhood has actively been trying to prevent this kind of activity throughout the neighborhood. The Rose Village Neighborhood Association has worked with the city of Vancouver and Clark County Restorative Community Services to “Take Action Against Graffiti,” a volunteer effort to clean up neighborhood graffiti. It has also worked with the city on “All Out Alley Attack,” an initiative that helped clean alleyways to make them safer.
Adventist Community Services, which partners with the Clark County Food Bank, is not alone in its weekly challenges, said James Fitzgerald, director of operations for the food bank.
“It’s certainly not an isolated problem,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s interesting for pantries that are mostly giving away food. People think it’s OK to drop their junk in front of those organizations.”
Adventist Community Services takes donations of food and clothing from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays.
