The Moses Lake Food Bank is doing a great job of putting food on the tables of those who need a helping hand. Years ago when I worked for the State helping disabled veterans find jobs, veterans would meet me at my desk. An assessment was made and the vet was sent on a job interview.

Some were homeless and a motel room and food voucher was procured for them for a night or two. One vet lived out of his pickup and worked the haying season, staying in the fields as he assisted the haying crews. The Moses Lake Food Bank provided most of his food. He had a cooler, so he only wanted fresh meat and other food which he could eat in a day or two, but he accepted any can goods available.

Another vet told me his 10 year old son's birthday was two days before, but the family didn't have money to even celebrate with a cupcake. I called the food bank and they told me to send the vet to them.

The food bank supplied a cake and a couple presents for the birthday boy and one for each of the two other children. Plus this couple was supplied with food from the food bank and a room for the night from a local charity.

Before the vet left my desk, I told him to gather the family around the table during supper and ask them what day it was. Then he was to tell them, no it was the date two days before, and they were to celebrate the birthday as if it was on the proper day. He and his wife came to my desk the next day and said the plan worked perfectly, with the birthday boy and the other children thrilled.

Some vets, such as the one on the haying crew, could not travel to the food bank because they were working. The food bank allowed me to pick up his food and deliver it to him.

I have duplicated this procedure several times for several households over the years. Currently I am assisting two households in a similar manner. One couple has two sons. Everyone is working or in school. Their income just doesn't stretch far enough.

Watching what they were going through for a couple of months, I visited them and asked if my bringing food from the food bank would help. At first they resisted, saying the food should go to those who don't have a job or are worse off than they were. I talked them into giving it a try.

Now after several months, they have told me the food is helping them stay afloat in these bad economic times.

The other situation is similar with the household slowly using up savings, month by month. The food bank assistance is helping to keep this household to slow the dwindling savings from a drizzle to a drip.

You, too, can assist a household in this manner. Contact the Moses Lake Food Bank at 765-8101 for the specifics. Basically the household will need to complete an application and prove they are in the Moses Lake area. You then will be able to pick up the food each week and deliver it to the household.

The amount and type of food available varies from week to week, but, as I tell the households I help, if the food saves $10 or $20 a week, this amount saves the same amount from the rent budget or the gas budget.

Good job Moses Lake Food Bank. Keep up the good work.

Plant a row for the hungry; seeds still available

From AmeriCorps member Jeni Roberts:

I still have an abundance of seeds and will be distributing the bulk of them at the Moses Lake Food Bank all of next week to help kick off spring. Anyone interested can stop by between Noon and 4 pm Monday, April 1, through Thursday, April 4. Anyone can stop by and pick up available seeds.

From Jeni, "The idea is to actually plant a row of vegetables and bring the ripe vegetables to the food bank, but sharing some of the garden produce with a neighbor or family member is also acceptable."

Many Columbia Basin gardeners donate their excess produce to the food bank anyway, but here is an effort to tempt other gardeners to do the same, by offering free seeds.

Contact Jeni at 750-4566.

Grant County history

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column. Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we continue the story of Wilson Creek by Cris Mordhorst, recorded Feb. 10, 1976:

Before the immigrant train came the Big Bend Land Company was putting on quite a splurge to sell land. They had taken on the Northern Pacific Railroad land to sell besides a lot of land he had bought up to sell at a profit, and a man by the name of M. E. Hay who was governor later, went back to Minnesota and contacted a lot of these farmers and brought them out to show them land and many of them bought land north of Wilson Creek and over toward the Almira country.

When he brought them there was one family by the name of Tichachech and they immediately bought some lots in Wilson Creek and had a rooming house built there. This was sometime during the spring or summer. Then these people went back to Minnesota and as near as I can find out they finished the crop season there and then those that had farmland sold it and sold most of their machinery and horses and cattle and down to what they could haul in one freight car load and they came to Wilson Creek on the 20th day of October, 1901. The first night they spent on the train and then some moved out to the farm and close to Wilson Creek and lived in tents until they got a barn built; others stayed in town until they got a barn built and then moved out.

Wilson Creek area history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we continue the story of The Lindblad family by Frank Lindblad:

Edward, the eldest, was a quiet unassuming man who loved his home and all its attributes. A great reader and thinker, he kept ably well informed by reading in the evening after the day's work was done.

Clarence was perhaps the most outgoing and adventuresome and in school specialized in speaking assignments. Minnie was a slender, pretty young lady who married early and devoted her life to homemaking and the care of her eight youngsters.

After the death of mother in 1910, Minnie assisted with the care and counseling of her younger brothers and sisters. Charles, also was a scholarly type, possessed a fine singing voice, read a great deal, and later attended Northwestern Business College in Spokane.