"Pantry Party"

Pantry Packs now helping more kids than ever. Looking for space the size of a 3-car garage, 24/7.

Redmond, WA, March 5, 2018 – Have an empty spot in your building? Want to make an impact in your local community? Consider a partnership with Pantry Packs, the all-volunteer program that delivers weekend food to over 850 students in the Lake Washington School District. This dynamic and powerful program is seeking a space—warehouse or other—to store food and host group packing events in the Kirkland/Redmond area. Community members should email leads to pantrypacks@lwsf.org.

Pantry Packs serves students from preschool through high school who have been identified by school personnel as "food-insecure" which means they are likely to not have enough food to eat over the weekend. Volunteers gather, purchase, and store kid-friendly, non perishable food. Once a month, upwards of fifty volunteers gather perishable volunteers gather and assemble this food into individual food packs at assembly-line-style "packing parties." These assembled packs are delivered directly to schools, where they are handed out discreetly by school personnel so that each identified student can take food home every Friday

Over 800 pantry packs are prepared and delivered
every week to over 40 LWSD schools

Pantry Packs is powered by the Lake Washington Schools Foundation, which is a 501(c)3 organization, so in-kind donations are tax deductible. The program’s minimum space needs include:

BOUNDARIES: safe and secure location within LWSD boundaries, preferably within Kirkland or Redmond.

SIZE: 1,000 ft² minimum for storage and pack assembly -- sized a little larger than a 3-car garage.

ACCESS: no stairs; must be easy for private vehicles to drive close to door and pick up packs; must have access for large bulk food deliveries on pallets.

PARKING: spaces for 50+ monthly volunteer packers; spaces for regular weekly volunteers.

HYGIENE AND SAFETY: able to store packaged food; free from pest or moisture issues; restroom access.

While Pantry Packs currently operates out of Hopelink’s Kirkland warehouse. Currently Pantry Packs delivers food packs to over 800 students every week. Leadership Team member Marlene Vacknitz pinpoints the problem:

“Many LWSD students benefit from receiving a weekly Pantry Pack and our numbers keep growing. Space is needed now, as we have already maxed out our storage—we simply can’t fit any more food in our current location. We must find a new space soon, as we want to provide for the increasing need in our area and not have to turn away a hungry student because of space. Our goal is to provide a Pantry Pack to any LWSD child that needs food so they don’t go hungry over the weekend.”