“My many years with the Food Bank have been an amazing journey filled with laughter, tears, faith & hope.  I have seen progression from our use of a small facility at the United Church to our own much larger building at the WTA Park & Ride location.  Yet, we continue to grow, and our hope for expansion is in the works.

I am so grateful for the incredible volunteers who give of their time and selves to help our families in need of food. We could not maintain our extremely busy operation without them.

My thanks go out as well to our sponsors and contributors. This community continues to not only step up, but run to the plate when needed.”

–Sincerely, Sharon Robinson

Sharon Robinson celebrated 18 years as Director of the Ferndale Food Bank in January of 2010, and is reluctantly retiring.  She has given 170 to 200 hours a month, every month, for all those years.  She really cares about the outcomes of the program, and works hard to make sure all program recipients are served in the best way possible for their needs.

While serving 700 to 800 families a month with only 8 active, regular volunteers (plus 7 drivers) she tries to reduce the time spent waiting for food by filling orders ahead of time with her “shoppers.”  Just 3 people work tirelessly to fill orders so the line can move quickly once people arrive.  This way they receive only food they will use, and are not humiliated by long waits outside the building.  She and her volunteers have worked hard to solve some of the problems inherent with food bank service—and for a valuable reason—she says: “to uphold the dignity and respect for the people served.”  Sharon instituted the shopper program when she found out much of the food given was being wasted.  She pays attention to ethnic needs, the age of folks served, as well as seasonal changes in needs.  For example, she seeks extra food for the summer that kids can fix themselves, because the school food programs aren’t there in those months.

Her leadership skills also show in the relationships she has developed with the managers of area stores.  They would not donate meat and other perishable items because of the risk they might be exposed to, so she invited them to tour her facility and review her practices of food storage.  Once they saw how orderly and organized her facility and practices were, they all agreed to donate more items.  This has reduced waste of food, and provided better nutrition for the recipients.

The Ferndale Food Bank has seen a 10% increase in need, and reports that even the volunteers are now needing help.  They are losing volunteers due to age and health issues, and now also need a new director. If you are interested in volunteering at the Ferndale Food Bank as a weekly volunteer or the volunteer Director please call 360-384-1506.

Thank you Sharon, for all you do for our community—we all appreciate it!