July/August 2023

A BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON

always-abundant Jackson High School food drive, with other Everett Schools participating! One downside of this situation is our storage capacity. We only have enough space to store a few weeks worth of food for our customers, including storing the food for Backpacks of Hope.

As many of you know, we did not do a community wide Thanksgiving meal give as we have in the past. Previous years were either funded privately by donors or purchased with excess cash reserves. Unfortunately we didn't have either this year and chose to focus efforts on feeding our regular weekly customers, which has trended over 450 families per week and is growing. Appointments are booked more than 2 weeks in advance but each week we do our best to accommodate families who weren't able to get one or are new customers.

Backpacks are Back!

Backpacks of Hope kicked off the school year the first week of October and has expanded, as it has each of the last 3 years with an almost 40% increase from last year to this year. More schools, more kids in existing schools, and still a greater need exists. The number of 'backpacks' we provide each school is less than the number of students the school has on free and reduced lunch programs, so we know these are only getting to families with the greatest need. We recently learned more about an overlap with children who are experiencing homelessness and likely living in a vehicle or temporary housing. Our goal is to not say no to any school asking for help. Right now we have a logistical max of 1000 bags, but realistically, we don't have the funds to purchase that much food. We currently provide over 750 bags at a cost of about $8,000/week!

Giving Tuesday

Our big ask for the rest of this year, and into 2024, are financial donations that would allow us to grow our storage capacity, hire additional staff, streamline our operations and services, and put dollars into the building fund. If your heart is set on helping directly with food, know your dollar donations can go directly to food purchased for Backpacks of Hope by designating it as such.

Mill Creek Community Food Bank will be closed December 25th and January 1st-10th

All regular customers will get holiday meal ingredients

starting two weeks prior to the Christmas holiday.

Donation Hours: Mon-Thur 9am-2:30pm

Service Times:

Express Pickup, Monday 4:00pm-6:00pm and Tuesday 1:00pm-2:00pm

Assisted Shopper, Wednesday 10:00am-12:00pm

Reserved Shopping, Thursday 4:00pm-7:00pm

A message from the Interim Executive Director, CJ Barkema

I feel so blessed and honored to help steer this amazing organization into a new chapter. I know it's powered by the heart for service our community has. So many of you put in countless hours and generous dollars; I can't thank you enough for your support in feeding our community!

Current Donation Needs

Size 5 Diapers • Baby Wipes • Almond Milk • Monetary Donations

Where can I drop off donations?

Mill Creek Food Bank

4326 148th Street SE

Mill Creek, WA 98012

(Behind Gold Creek Church)

Mill Creek City Hall

15728 Main Street

Mill Creek, WA 98012

YMCA Mill Creek

13723 Puget Park Drive

Everett, WA 98208