Food banks to receive outreach services

FISH Food Banks of Pierce County, South Sound Outreach Services and Bank of America will host an opening celebration and tour for their new Lakewood-area Connection Center on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. at Lakes Area FISH Food Bank, located at United Methodist Church (6900 Steilacoom Blvd., SW, Lakewood 98499).

Food banks are often the first place people turn when they are in a financial crisis. But most food bank clients need more than food to resolve a crisis and begin to move toward self-sufficiency. To address the longer-term needs of its clients, in 2009, FISH Food Banks of Pierce County became the first food bank organization in the area to offer extended services by teaming up with South Sound Outreach Services (SSOS) to establish Connection Centers in three of its largest and busiest food banks. In the Connection Centers, an SSOS outreach specialist is available onsite during food bank hours to offer clients a single point of entry for dozens of community resources, government subsidies, medical and housing options, allowing them to access food and other resources from a single, familiar location.

This unique Connection Center partnership received the 2010 Weyerhaeuser Company Innovation Award at the Nonprofit Excellence Awards. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, FISH Food Banks and South Sound Outreach Services are able to open two additional Connection Centers, the first in Lakewood and a second to follow in NW Tacoma.

Lakes Area FISH Food Bank, which will house this latest Connection Center, is FISH’s fastest-growing food bank. Since moving to new, larger quarters in March, the food bank has seen an 80 percent increase in clients, and currently serves nearly 4,000 clients each month.

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