It started as a way to share excess garden produce within the congregation. You bring something in, set it on the counter. Someone picks it up and takes it home, dropping a couple of dollars in the box on their way out.

Then Wayne Van Metre, friend of the congregation, saw the end of his days coming and asked that whatever he had left in this world be put to use seeing to it that the hungry in Sunnyside were fed.

Money from the veggies started to add up, and Debbie Mendoza found this box, and then . . .

Our pantry was born! We bought some food so that members could have some in their cars to distribute to those in need.

Then we met with the fine folks at Grocery Outlet. They had stock that they were just throwing away and asked if we wanted to get some of it to distribute to the people in need . . .

We had the idea to give away the necessities for a Thanksgiving meal, advertised it on Facebook and had 10 takers. We got a dedicated text number, so we could let people know when we had a lot of food to distribute.

. . . eventually, we bought a freezer so we could also keep meat and other frozen foods for distribution.

After some fits and starts, we began trying to distribute every other Friday, giving a couple of bags of groceries to our neighbors in need.

We’ve remodeled the storage area, established some ground rules, and have grown, mostly through word-of-mouth, and have been looking to expand to some in-person meals, initially for just the homeless, but hopefully expanding to the whole community.

If you have any ideas, want to partner with us, or are in need of some assistance yourself, call the church office and leave a message. (509-837-4550) Messages are treated with maximum discretion.