The Buccaneer

Issue date: 5/21/08 Section: Opinion

Jason Beaudette takes his time while deciding which dessert items he wished to pick up this month at the Valley Street Food Bank in Port Angeles.

There are multiple food outlets in the City of Port Angeles serving people and families in need.
For this look into food banks in Port Angeles I visited two sites: The Salvation Army Food Bank/Soup Kitchen and monthly Commodities, and the Port Angeles Food Bank on South Valley Street.

Separate from the food banks is a weekly dinner at 5:30 p.m. at the First Methodist church on 7th and Laurel.

The Salvation Army is by far the most diverse outlet available. There is a hot lunch from noon to 1 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, which you could attend before the main food bank opens Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m., and Thursdays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Drop in as often as you wish.

The Salvation Army requires you to fill out an extensive form before getting food. You have to give your name, birth date, address, phone, purpose, Social Security number, ethnicity, sex, marital status and whether you go to church.

After all that you get to walk down an incline, zig-zagging twice downward with relief organizations' leaflets plastering a bulletin board, until you finally reach the food.

Now you get a choice of a variety of meats and frozen goods depending what they have available that day. Then you proceed along like a conveyer belt where the helpers are more like robots. Next you get a pre-packed bag of can goods with no choice selections. After that you get to choose a dry goods item and one dessert. When you're done you can either get a selection of commodities (more can goods) once a month or a selection of free-for-all food, which usually includes an assortment of refined white breads and vegetables.

The Salvation Army Food Bank is located at 206 S. Peabody, Port Angeles.
For a less frequent source of food the Valley Street food bank is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

Unlike the Salvation Army, you give a minimal amount of information plus proof of residency in Port Angeles, but visits are limited to once each month.

Then you get a number, depending how many people are in your household, and proceed along with a shopping cart. First you get a pre-packed bag of can goods and sugar items, before you pick one item from a selection of dry goods. Helpers encourage you to take as much white bread as possible.

The refrigeration section is where you get eggs, assorted dairy and frozen items-this section usually goes the quickest, for a good selection it's best to come earlier. Finally, you get to the vegetables, which are rare to find in decent condition, and more bread.

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