QUINCY — It was still a couple of weeks shy of St. Patrick’s Day, but the green was being worn at the Quincy Food Bank’s Golden Giving auction Saturday. About 50 people came out to enjoy corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, and dancers from An Daire Academy of Irish Dance showed their fancy footwork, all to raise funds to expand the food bank. 

The need is growing, said Jess Slusher, pastor of Faith Community Church, who served as MC for the event. 

“In June of 2021, the Quincy Food Bank serves 748 households, 2,381 individuals,” Slusher said. “If you fast-forward just four years, that month of June (2025), we served 1,856 households, or 4,752 individuals. In other words, our need doubled in the space of four years, which means we have to have more food, and we have to have more places to store it.” 

The auction Saturday night, the Quincy Food Bank’s first, was dedicated to building that storage. The food bank has owned the lot across the alley from the existing building since 2015, according to county records, and has been trying for several years to raise enough money to put a cold storage facility on that land, with coolers and freezers. The building was estimated to cost about $300,000. 

The auction Saturday put the food bank several steps closer to that goal. Numbers weren’t available, but Food Bank Director Teri Laney estimated that it brought in about $15,000. 

Just about everything was donated, Laney said. Her son Jordan Wilmorth served as chef, and the Port of Quincy let the food bank use its building for free. All the decorations were donated, and food bank volunteers served dinner. 

The auction started small and snowballed, Laney said. 

“Two people in the community (Velma Dunkin and Pat Stetner) got together and by themselves got a couple of items to raffle off,” she said. “They wanted to keep doing raffles, and I said, ‘Maybe we should put together a silent auction.’ Three months later we had 75 items.” 

The dance troupe consisted of six ladies who demonstrated various forms of traditional Irish dance, while instructor Angela Schaub explained the history behind the dance and musical selections. 

The Quincy Food Bank is about 40 years old, Slusher told attendees at the auction. It started because one local woman saw a need and decided to do something about it. 

“It was a family in her church that didn't have enough food,” Slusher said. And she said, ‘Come to my house and I'll feed you.’ She fed them, and then she sent them home with some food. She started to become aware of people's needs and this happened again and again to the point where she started to store food in her basement for families, and she became known as the person you could go to if you didn't have enough food. Well, became too small for the need that she was facing. So, St. Pius Catholic Church purchased that property and built the food bank that we see now, and then they gave it to the community.” 

Between Saturday’s auction and some grants from the Columbia Basin Foundation and some private donors, the food bank is pretty close to making its goal, Laney said. There are more grants that the food bank has applied for that should fill the gap. 

Ground should be broken for the building by the end of March, Laney said. 

“The building is going to be 3,200 square feet,” Slusher said. ‘It’s going to have a freezer (and) a cooler, and we’re going to be able to drive a forklift into it. The city has been really cooperative, and they’re going to let us pace all the way across the alley so we have a smooth access from our food bank into the new storage unit. And, hopefully within the space of a year, that building is going to be there.” 

    Dancers from An Daire Academy of Irish Dance in Wenatchee demonstrate traditional Irish steps at the Golden Giving auction to benefit the Quincy Food Bank Saturday.

    Pastor Jess Slusher, standing, delivers the blessing over dinner at the Quincy Food Bank auction and dinner Saturday. The fare was traditionally Irish: corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.