Agi Ottlyk, a volunteer at The Cove, organized bags of food for clients of the Twisp food pantry.
Shortages have ripple effect in supply chain
Food shortages caused by lower crop yields, inflation, and high diesel prices have forced Second Harvest, a primary supplier to food banks in Okanogan County, to suspend all deliveries in eastern Washington.
Spokane-based Second Harvest canceled all deliveries for December and January because they don’t have enough food to distribute, Community Partnership Director Eric Williams told the Methow Valley News last week.
Okanogan County Community Action Council, which supported almost 4,400 households throughout the county in November, was already running low before they learned — just one day before the November truckload was due — that they’d be getting no Second Harvest deliveries for two months, Food and Nutrition Manager Michellee Fox said.
Community Action supplies nine food pantries in the county, from Twisp to Omak to Wauconda. More than one-fourth of the county’s population relies on food pantries, Fox said. Second Harvest provided more than 511,000 pounds of food to Okanogan County through Community Action from July 2021 through June 2022, Williams said. All the food is free to Community Action and the local pantries.
Only a small percentage of the food distributed through The Cove, the food pantry in Twisp, comes from Second Harvest, Executive Director Glenn Schmekel said. Although the interruptions will have an impact, because of the generosity of the Methow community The Cove has an ample supply and has planned ahead for shortages, he said.
“I’m not surprised there are cutbacks, but I’m not worried,” Schmekel said. The Cove can still fill local needs — they create weekly menus and fill in gaps with local support and donations. “Everything that comes in, goes out,” Schmekel said.
Nevertheless, while Schmekel has seen reductions in the past, this is the first time in 25 years that Second Harvest donations have been cut off altogether, he said.
Client numbers are going up at each pantry as food gets more expensive, and the need typically swells over the holidays, Fox said. Many people live on the edge, and one unplanned expense can push them over. With higher costs for everything, lots of households say they’re nearly out of food at the end of the month, she said.
The Cove generally serves about 60 households per week, but that number increased to more than 80 in the past couple of weeks. It’s typical to see higher needs in winter, Schmekel said. Okanogan County is the largest and poorest county in the state and people on a fixed income are especially hard-hit by inflation, he said.
Fox has been scrambling to find grants and donations to make up the shortfall. “People were barely making it before this,” she said.
Other food sources
The food from Second Harvest is one of several sources of food for Okanogan County food pantries. Community Action receives shelf-stable foods such as canned beans, rice and cereal from Seattle-based Northwest Harvest, and those deliveries have not been interrupted.
Northwest Harvest typically ships 16,000 pounds of fresh, frozen and canned food to Okanogan County every month. They also supply some non-food items. The delivery slated for this week is still on schedule, Northwest Harvest Director of Community Engagement Jeanie Chunn said.
Another federal program called The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) provides fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy and whole grains to 19 hunger-relief programs across the state through the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA).
But TEFAP foods are typically delivered to Okanogan County by Second Harvest. While TEFAP has the food, they now need to find another way to get it delivered.
WSDA vowed that the TEFAP food will be delivered while it’s fresh, WSDA Media Relations Coordinator Amber Betts said. “No matter what, it will get there,” she said. WSDA is looking for ways to solve the longer-term problem to ensure ongoing deliveries, she said.
Behind the shortfall
Second Harvest cut back on the deliveries because they simply don’t have enough food, Williams said. About 30% of donations to Second Harvest come from farmers, but many crops — particularly apples and potatoes — had lower yields this year.
Second Harvest gets most produce locally, but they also source some foods from California, where harvests have been down because of the prolonged drought, Williams said.
“Food is going out the doors faster than it’s coming in,” Williams said.
The sources of Second Harvest’s food vary from month to month. About 90% comes from private sources, including farmers, processors, and “grocery rescue” — safe and nutritious foods that food stores donate when they have a surplus. The other 10% comes from government programs. They also get donations through food drives, Williams said.
Second Harvest buys some foods to distribute, but increased commodity prices, along with the high cost of diesel fuel, mean money doesn’t go as far. Diesel affects not only Second Harvest’s deliveries, but also the costs borne by the growers and producers, Williams said.
Community Action purchases fresh foods and meat to supplement the government supplies. They do their own grocery rescue and get some food through donation bins they place in local supermarkets, Fox said.
Some of the county’s food pantries pick up the groceries from Community Action at their Omak office, but others get them delivered. Since most of these pantries are operated by elderly volunteers, Community Action tries to assist with money for gas and vehicle repairs, Fox said.
Global crisis
Second Harvest supplies 26 counties, 21 in Washington and five in northern Idaho. It has two warehouses, one in Spokane and one in Pasco. Some food banks pick up their food, but most receive deliveries, Williams said.
Supplies to food banks like Second Harvest have plummeted since federal programs that provided extra food during the COVID pandemic ended, Williams said. In 2021, Second Harvest received 52 million pounds of donated food, the highest ever.
The food crisis isn’t just local or confined to the United States. Global events including conflicts and drought have contributed to worldwide shortages, Williams said.
Second Harvest has spent an extra $500,000 this fall to shore up food supplies, but that has become unsustainable, Williams said. The nonprofit also added an employee to find more sources for food and assigned three others to help, hoping to resolve the crisis by February, Williams said. “We take this situation very seriously,” he said.
In all, Second Harvest distributes 30 to 35 million pounds of food — some 30 million meals — per year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calculates that the average meal requires 1.2 pounds of food, Williams said.
“We’re not in this alone. Lots of places are struggling to provide enough food,” Williams said.
