27 local grocery stores participating in Fresh Alliance program

The Clark County Food Bank received nearly 6.7 million pounds of food last year. More than 25 percent of it, or about 1.7 million pounds, was recovered from local grocery stores — the most of any source. The recovery program, known as Fresh Alliance, accounts for more food than what’s culled from food drives and the U.S. Department of Agriculture combined.

Fresh Alliance is a nationally recognized food bank program that gathers food grocery stores no longer want and distributes it to local food banks. It could be food that’s close to its expiration date or food that’s just not selling quickly enough.

“Instead of throwing it in the dumpster or sending it back to corporate headquarters, they want to donate to our food bank, because it’s still good food. That’s the remarkable thing,” said Matt Edmonds, communications manager at the Clark County Food Bank.

Volunteers driving refrigerated box trucks collect food five days per week, between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds daily, and bring it back to the food bank where it’s sorted, repackaged and distributed to food pantries around the area.

“It’s what we start our day doing,” said Glen Jones, food and warehouse manager at the food bank.

Volunteers typically return to the food bank by 10:30 a.m. with grocery store donations. And, Fresh Alliance’s contribution is only growing.

The two local Costcos recently began participating in the program, and discussions are happening with WinCo Foods, which has four Clark County stores. Feeding America, a national nonprofit coalition of food banks, negotiates grocery store contracts so the new contract with Costco is being rolled out nationwide, Edmonds said.

“We are one of the first food banks in the nation to begin collecting from Costco,” he said.

Jones has been the food bank’s food and warehouse manager for four months. Before that, he spent about 12 years at New Seasons and also worked at Fred Meyer. He likes to analyze workflow and logistics, figuring out ways to make the process more efficient and thereby getting food on people’s tables quicker. It takes a minimum of four drivers per day to make the grocery store runs, and typically, the food bank likes to send them with one or two helpers.

As Jones made a run to Costco on Thursday morning, he took notes about what to tell volunteers about the route and the process. Frozen chicken breasts and drumsticks, strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, bananas and deli entrees were among the donations. Proteins and fresh produce are not as consistently donated to the food bank as shelf-stable pantry items, making the meats and produce from Costco a welcome addition.

New box truck

The food bank had a fleet of four trucks, but one recently broke down. It was poor timing given the new Costco agreement. The trucks are expensive because they are refrigerated and have lift gates for loading food into the bed of the truck.

The Ed & Dollie Lynch Fund heard about the food bank’s need and offered to cover the cost of a new truck.

“That was a pretty exciting day for us,” Edmonds said.

The Lynch Fund donated $130,000, and Vancouver Rotary Foundation donated $5,000 for a 24-foot Freightliner refrigerated box truck with a lift gate. The Lynch fund donated an additional $40,000 for equipment needed to immediately increase food recovery and make those Costco collections while the truck is being built. The $40,000 covers a pallet jack, hand trucks, cardboard baler installation and the fee for renting a refrigerated box truck for three months.

Jones said the new truck gives the food bank more capacity when it comes to picking up food donations. For Fresh Alliance, drivers typically visit between two and eight stores during a route, and the extra equipment helps reduce the risk of injury.

The estate of Ed and Dollie Lynch released a statement about the grant: “We are deeply appreciative of the great work done by the Clark County Food Bank — a very well run organization fulfilling ever expanding nutritional demands. Alan and the board should be commended for what they do. When we became aware of the urgent need for the food bank to replace their existing refrigeration semi-truck with enhanced capabilities to take full advantage of Costco’s generosity, our response was an easy, ‘yes!'”