‘There’s so many hungry kids’ and these Whatcom volunteers ‘don’t want to look away’
For about 760 children in Whatcom County, a bag of food distributed by volunteers stands between them and hunger each weekend.
The food is made possible by Open Hands, a program launched by Calvary Creekside church in November 2017.
Each Sunday, members of the congregation in north Whatcom County and other volunteers gather to pack the donated food. On Fridays during the school year, six crews deliver bags to classrooms at 10 schools in Whatcom County.
The food goes to preschoolers through fifth-graders whose families ask for it — helping to fill a gap during the weekend when students who qualify for free and reduced meals don’t have access to them.
“That is the hope, to get them through the weekend,” said Larae Tjoelker, a Blaine resident and church member who runs Open Hands with her husband Shannon.
About 50 people volunteer with the effort each week.
“The teachers in these schools, their hearts break for their kids daily. There’s hungry kids and we don’t want to look away from that,“ Tjoelker said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald.
The need has grown since Open Hands’ start.
Last year, for example, children at seven schools were being helped. This year, it’s 10 schools.
Two more schools have asked for food — 350 students at one and 150 at the other, according to Tjoelker.
“There’s so many hungry kids,” she said.
Helping students
The Open Hands volunteers are now helping students at Isom, Custer, Cascadia, Everson, Nooksack, Sumas, Skyline, Eagleridge and Central elementary schools as well as at North Bellingham Learning Center.
They pack the food on Sundays, pulling from four shipping containers at the church to fills bags with what’s called menu one and menu two.
“It’s super basic,” said Tjoelker, adding that the food has to have a shelf life, be inexpensive and something the children can make.
Menu one consists of a can of chicken noodle soup, ramen in a cup, Top Ramen, a sleeve of Saltine crackers, small container of peanut butter, a Pop-Tart, granola bar and Nutri-Grain fruit bar.
Menu two is made up of mac and cheese, two Top Ramens, a small Raisin Bran cereal, apple sauce cup, a Pop-Tart, granola bar and popcorn.
It costs $3 to feed each child each week. For the school year, that’s a total of $77,520, according to Tjoelker.
What’s given to the children is augmented by additional donations, such as fruit to students in the Ferndale School District thanks to the Ferndale Food Bank.
Nature’s Path, which has a plant in Blaine, recently donated 10,000 granola bars, according to Tjoelker, while Ferndale-based Hempler’s gave Open Hands 1,900 pepperoni sticks.
Food for the weekend
“It’s not fancy food. It’s really simple. They’re not passing out a lot of fresh fruit. It’s calories. It’s made to help get through a period of time, but it is what this community evidently needs,” said Kevin DeVere, principal for Everson Elementary School.
This is the third year that Open Hands has helped students at his school.
“It’s heart-wrenching that in our country in 2020 that there are so many families that have this sense of they don’t have enough food,” DeVere said, “and what that does to kids around having food insecurity and wondering when they’re going to eat again.”
DeVere and other school officials praised Open Hands’ effort at filling the gap for hungry kids on the weekends.
“Our families and students have welcomed the food provided each week by Open Hands. Skyline and Central receive over 140 bags each Friday. Each week almost 1 in every 5 students brings food home for the weekend,” Susan Gribbin, Family Community coordinator for the Ferndale School District, said to The Bellingham Herald in an email interview.
Gribbin added: “The Open Hands volunteers are stellar role models in our community. It’s amazing how they’ve grown donations to match the need.”
To launch the program, Calvary Creekside church paid for costs such as the storage containers and refurbishing a van used for the deliveries — what lead pastor Tony Neal called the infrastructure.
Roughly 60% of Open Hands’ annual budget comes from cash donations from individuals and grants, and the remaining 40% is in-kind food donations from individuals and companies, according to Neal.
As for being able to help more students, that depends on additional donations from the community, according to Tjoelker.
“Just a little bit makes a huge difference,” she said.
To help
Go online to cvcreekside.com/openhands to learn how to donate to Open Hands and its efforts to feed young students in Whatcom County.
Questions: Email openhands@cvcreekside.com.
Donations are tax-deductible.
