Kiwanis Food Bank needs donations

More and more families in Sisters rely on help from the Kiwanis Food Bank - and the pantry is running low. According to Shirley Lalli of Kiwanis, the food bank is about $9,000 behind in donations from where it was last year

The need is acute.

"Yesterday (Thursday, November 20) alone, we had 46 families," Lalli reported last Friday. "We're getting families of five, six, seven. Big families. It seems like every day, someone new shows up. Some people are always coming. Their income is just not enough to support them. The need is so great. Yesterday we ran out of bread and milk and butter."

Some of those folks are in the woods in cold winter weather.

"There's a lot of people living in the forest south of town," said Kiwanian Dan Stearns.

Cash donations are much preferred, because cash allows the flexibility to buy the particular items that are needed at a given time. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 1296, Sisters, OR 97759. Donations to the food bank are tax-deductible.

Kiwanis is also preparing its Holiday Food Share Program. Applications are currently available at the Food Bank on Main Avenue. Qualified recipients will receive a gift card for Food 4 Less in Bend or Melvin's Fir Street Market in Sisters.

Lalli and Stearns emphasized the critical importance of community support for the Kiwanis Food Bank and expressed gratitude for that support.

"The food bank is here because of the community," Lalli said. "It's the people of Sisters who helped build that. We have, I think, by far the best food bank in Central Oregon."