Donations benefit Moses Lake Food Bank

MOSES LAKE - Last year, Samaritan Healthcare employees collected 352 turkeys so the needy in Moses Lake could have Thanksgiving dinner.

This year, the hospital hopes to collect 500 turkeys.

Donations of turkeys, canned goods or money for the Moses Lake Food Bank can be dropped off at Safeway from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday during Samaritan Healthcare and the Samaritan Healthcare Foundation's annual turkey drive.

"The food bank is short on peas, green beans, olives, pumpkin, cranberry sauce, chicken broth, canned milk and canned meat," said Samaritan Community Relations Coordinator Connie Opheikens.

This year, shoppers can pick up pre-bagged goods at Safeway for $10, to be donated to the food bank, Opheikens said.

Hospital staff and their families began collecting donations Thursday. The food is loaded into a refrigerated truck and taken to the food bank at the end of each day. Volunteers are responsible for sorting the food.

Last year, $1,050 in cash was donated, in addition to 7,122 pounds of canned goods and 6,000 pounds of poultry.

"It's huge. Our shelves, without Samaritan Healthcare helping us, would be very bare by the end of Thanksgiving," said Moses Lake Food Bank Assistant Executive Director Peny Archer.

Archer said the food bank is never able to give every family a turkey. More than 1,200 families are expected to show up in the three days before Thanksgiving.

Opheikens said she visited the food bank last year on the first day food was handed out for Thanksgiving.

"The long lines, I mean, my heart went out to those people," she said.

The food bank may be the only way for the families to have a Thanksgiving dinner, she said.

Opheikens thanked Safeway for their help, Signs Now for the signs, and the Columbia Basin Herald and KDRM for advertising.