Guests of honor open new food distribution center for Chelan and Douglas counties

WENATCHEE — State, federal and local officials helped cut the ribbon Thursday on the Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council's new food distribution center, which isn't yet fully operational but marks a big step for the agency's food insecurity programs.

Eighth District Congresswoman Kim Schrier joined 12th District state Rep. Mike Steele to cut the ribbon at the new facility, 1700 N. Wenatchee Ave.

"One of my passions is just making sure that no children in this country go hungry," Schrier told NCWLIFE. "And so this is just a magnificent achievement for Chelan and Douglas County to have this food bank and food pantry.

Schrier secured $3 million in federal funding for the nonprofit agency to buy and renovate the former C&O Nursery facility, while Steele helped allocate $1 million in state dollars.

"Obviously, this is a project that's incredibly worthy for our region and does great work across the rest of this whole two-county area," Steele said. "I mean, we're really working hard to help those folks who need it most."

One facet of the new center is its community market, where people receiving food under the SNAP program can shop for healthy goods using benefit cards.

"We have an online software system where we'll get people registered," said community market manager Nora Hollingsworth. "They'll only have to register one time and then they'll get a scan card that will get them in every time."

Depending on household size, guests receive a set amount of points each month to be used for food shopping, Hollingsworth said.

Alan Walker, executive director of Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council, says the need in the two counties for food assistance hasn't waned in the last four years.

"During the pandemic, we saw a huge spike in the need," Walker told NCWLIFE. "We really thought it would start to taper off as we came into 2023. But now we're into the first quarter of 2024 and it has not leveled off any. We're serving around 10,000 individuals each month, and this will just be another opportunity for people to access food.

"And that's the exciting part about it — we'll be able to have this space opened up multiple days a week for several hours a day, really taking down that barrier of 'this is your one opportunity for this couple of hours a week.'"