Second Harvest resumes deliveries to rural pantries under a new pickup hub model

After cutting off its supplies to over 80 food banks late last year due to food shortages, the Inland Northwest’s largest food bank distributor has resumed deliveries across the region.

Under a new model, Second Harvest will deliver groceries to several regional redistribution hubs at partner organizations across Washington. Smaller agencies and individual food banks can then arrange to pick up from those transfer points.

And as long as food is available, any partner organization can also make an appointment to pick up food directly from Second Harvest’s warehouses in Spokane or Pasco.

Second Harvest supplies 280 food pantries and meal sites in North Idaho and central and Eastern Washington.

Eric Williams, community partnerships director for Second Harvest, said this will be a more efficient use of the organization’s semitrucks.

Previously, because of food shortages, Second Harvest sent deliveries through trucks that were mostly empty, which wasted gas. Making fewer trips will also keep trucks available to pick up food from suppliers who are unable to deliver to Second Harvest.

“We understand this is not a great situation, especially for our pantries,” Williams said. “We appreciate their patience.”

Currently, the hubs are Blue Mountain Action Council in Walla Walla and Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council in Wenatchee. Deliveries to Rural Resources Community Action in Colville are scheduled to begin later this month. Williams said the hub locations may be adjusted over time as needed.

Erik Mora, food bank director for Blue Mountain Action Council, said the new model will allow them to increase deliveries from once to twice a month for 15 food banks in five southeast Washington counties.

Mora said the biggest challenges for providing rural services are time and distance. Delivering food to where people live involves high costs in fuel and staff hours.

“I understand why Second Harvest did what they did,” he said.

Local communities stepped up to support their pantries during the recent shortages, Mora said.

Second Harvest suspended deliveries during December and January amid escalating shortages. During that time, Second Harvest continued distributing to partners that already picked up food themselves, but didn’t allow any other partners to start picking up.

This left local food banks, many of them rural, scrambling with little notice to find alternative sources.

The new distribution model was suggested as a solution by some of Second Harvest’s partner organizations.

“We are wide open to thinking of any way to do a better job of getting food to hungry people,” Williams said.

Rena Shawver, director of Okanogan County Community Action Council, said they are grateful to be getting food again and are “making do” with the new model. The action council, which serves nine food banks in Okanogan County, will pick up from the hub in Wenatchee.

Even with a regional hub, it can be a burden for pantries to pick up themselves. It takes the action council two-and-a-half hours one way from Okanogan to Wenatchee. And because their truck is so small, they have to go twice a month.

“It’s not an ideal model for us and we’re hoping more funding will be coming from the state to mitigate this situation and cover the transportation costs,” Shawver said.

Williams said food supplies are still tight.

“Right now, we are doing mediocre,” he said.

Second Harvest is operating on about two-thirds its normal inventory. Supplies increased during the pandemic with government assistance, but most of that has ebbed.

Williams said Second Harvest has a decent supply of fresh food, but is struggling to find shelf-stable dry goods. He said it is a supply-chain issue.

“There is just less food in the world right now,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to get food, but it’s not a rosy scenario, probably, for the next few years.”