Last week the Eastside Neighborhood Association conducted its Annual Meeting to a great turnout thanks to Nathan and Casey Allen of the Swantown Inn, who supplied not only the location, but a soup supper! The program that followed included two guest speakers: Chris Hyde, the Souper Sunday guy, and Berenice Hartt Plazas from the Thurston County Food Bank. Both spoke on the topic of food insecurity.
Chris Hyde has been a great asset to the people of Olympia and has followers from all over the United States, some of which have begun their own free food give aways. He has just successfully become a nonprofit organization, Food Source Foundation, and is hoping to expand to provide more types of free food to more people.
Berenice Hartt Plazas spoke about the Thurston County Food Bank program in existence for over 50 years. It has 20 locations and 18 mobile programs. Besides Thurston County, their programs serve some surrounding counties. She noted that in the last six years there has been a real increase in need for those who work but do not have enough money for food after paying all their bills. The number of seniors needing food has increased by 50%.
Programs provided by the Food Bank include: Backpack food for Kids, Holiday meals, hygiene supplies, Birthday bags and Newborn bags. Funding comes from City, State, Federal and donor programs. They have 32 employees and all the rest are volunteers.
For more information on these programs go to:
To learn more and or become involved with the Eastside Neighborhood Association contact: