Former garden volunteer manager Susan Randolph shows visitors around the garden in 2015. FISH headquarters is at rear left; Spirit of Grace Church, right.
Former garden volunteer manager Susan Randolph shows visitors around the garden in 2015. FISH headquarters is at rear left; Spirit of Grace Church, right.
On April 26, the FISH Food Bank invites the community to join in a celebration of 50 years of service to Hood River County and Mosier.
The event takes place at the Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave., Hood River, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.; Maui and Jan Meyer have donated the space. There will be music and snacks to share, along with a video and presentations.
Marianne Durkan, FISH board president, describes it as a “night to express gratitude to the community.”
In 1969, community spirit and concern for their hungry neighbors inspired the original founders to create a local unit of FISH, a larger aid organization founded in Oxford eight years earlier. The organizers drew volunteers from many local churches to form a core group for outreach efforts. Kathleen Nichols, one of the original Hood River FISH founders, described their mission as providing “everything people needed to live.”
Volunteers fulfilled requests for transportation, meals, car repairs, temporary shelter, and even clothing. Irene Best, called “one of the guiding lights” of FISH by founder Rev. Larry Ferguson, often fed people with meals from her restaurant, located at 13th and State.
Irene Best at FISH Food Bank’s Concordia Lutheran site in 2003.
Hood River News file photo.
Throughout the 50 years of FISH’s existence, volunteers have remained the backbone of operations and many feel a deep connection to the organization. Silvia Maciel, a newer FISH board member, has volunteered with FISH for more than six years. She recalls how FISH was an “essential resource for many years” for her family and now appreciates the chance to give back to the community.
Durkan, FISH board president since 1999, is proud of how volunteer efforts at FISH allow most funds raised to support food purchases.
“Because of the huge volunteer commitment, we spend money on food for our clients. We do not receive state or Federal funds, which is an achievement,” she said.
Volunteers worked at FISH for more than 11,000 hours in 2018, and local orchards, farmers and backyard gardeners donated more than 23,000 pounds of produce. Community food drives and fundraisers help to keep the shelves stocked. Durkan credits the support of the entire Hood River community for FISH’s ongoing success.
Today’s operations rely on this strong base of donor and volunteers, along with a continuing interfaith network of support. But for many years, tight finances and a lack of dedicated storage space for food made FISH’s survival difficult. Nichols recalls a time when the FISH food pantry was “four shelves in my utility room.”
The long search for a dedicated location to store and distribute food extended from the basement of St. Mark’s church to the Yasui Apartment building and even the ballroom of the Hood River Hotel. Frozen food eventually found space at Russ Guppy Distributors for $5 in monthly rent, but FISH faced repeated moves as it outgrew numerous sites.
The long-running search for a permanent home for the food bank ended in 2010, when Our Redeemer Lutheran (now Spirit of Grace church) celebrated its 50th anniversary by offering land adjacent to the church for a new FISH facility.
An outpouring of community support made the building a reality. In 2015, after years of planning, fundraising and building, FISH moved into its main site at 1130 Tucker Road. The new location has plenty of room to accept the generous donations that come from local orchardists, grocery stores, and others who drop off food or personal care items, along with a comfortable waiting area for clients.
Volunteers Tonia Sanchez and Cindy Allen with site coordinator Lorinda Hoffman in 2015.
File photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
FISH continues to evolve in its mission to assist those in need, while retaining long-standing traditional help as well. Eight churches provide volunteers on a rotating basis to help clients shopping in the FISH store. But Durkan also points to the array of new services FISH provides today, including summer lunches for children, the community garden run by the Spirit of Grace and community health support offered by volunteer Sidney Axtell.
FISH remains committed to an inclusive outreach to serve all members in our diverse community. Axtell recently completed an assessment of how food supplied by FISH can serve the cultural food needs of clients. Durkan expects those recommendations to support the ongoing addition of culturally-appropriate food to the FISH store, along with changes in some of the produce grown.
The FISH mission will not only ensure that no one is hungry, but that clients of the food bank have the “opportunity to self-select nutritious food that fits their dietary preferences and cultural traditions.”
FISH board members will be on hand at the April 26 celebration to thank the community for 50 years of generous support. Nichols, now 92 years old, remembers founder Larry Ferguson’s words about the first clients who sought aid from FISH: “If they need help, give it … no questions asked.”
Fifty years on, FISH honors that commitment every da
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