MOSES LAKE — Hayden Homes, and its partner company Simplicity by Hayden Homes, went a step beyond their mission of affordable housing this month, with donations to organizations across the Northwest fighting food insecurity.

Especially at this time of the year, it becomes more in the spotlight to think about families out there that are struggling,” said Rees Wasney, regional vice president of Hayden Homes in the Tri-Cities. “It’s a tough time.”

Hayden Homes chipped in $66,000 to 15 nonprofits across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Western Montana, according to an announcement from the company. In addition, the Hayden team amassed more than 2,500 pounds of non-perishable food for local food banks.

The drive started out as a battle for bragging rights, Wasney said.

“Our marketing department and our customer experience department were meeting, uh, people from all four of the regions discussing what they wanted to do for a year-end charitable idea,” Wasney said. “And when they all got together, they all realized that they were all focusing on the same thing: supporting the local food banks. We put a competition together and it just spread across the whole company, and off we went.”

In Washington, Hayden Homes gave more than $32,500 to local organizations including Blue Mountain Action Council, Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels for Seniors, Palouse Food Bank and Second Harvest Inland Northwest Food Banks, according to the announcement. The funds will support a variety of initiatives to ensure community members can feed their families not just during the holidays but throughout the year.

Team members also gathered 611 pounds of canned and dry foods, which were donated to Second Harvest’s Inland Northwest location serving the Spokane Valley, according to the announcement. Hayden Homes and its partner organizations also donated $9,000 to Second Harvest, which will enable the organization to purchase more than 20,000 pounds of food.

“We are committed to setting the table for our neighbors in need,” Jason Clark, CEO of Second Harvest Inland Northwest, wrote in the announcement. “When local homebuilders like Hayden Homes and Simplicity invest in the organizations working to alleviate hunger, we can better and more effectively nourish our community from all angles, from addressing immediate needs to long-term food security.”

Hayden Homes, based in Redmond, Oregon, has built developments in Moses Lake and Othello, as well as the Tri-Cities, Spokane, Walla Walla and Yakima Valley areas of Washington. The company focuses on affordable housing and believes in giving back to those communities where it sells homes, Wasney said, something that isn’t universal in the business world.

“I’ve been with the company for 26 years and I didn’t know a whole bunch about giving and having it in your fabric like it is at this company,” Wasney said. “That exposure gets a little addictive. It’s so cool to listen to the stories across our company …  people are taking it upon themselves to go do it. Without that exposure, life moves really quick.”

    Hayden Homes team members sort more than 2,000 pounds of grapes for Second Harvest in Spokane.