Did you know?
The Mt Si Food bank brings backpacks to about 175 kids in the Snoqualmie Valley every Friday at school, each filled with food and snacks for the weekend. But during the summer, with schools closed, the kids don’t have access to free or reduced price breakfast and lunch, which means the backpack program provides a whole week’s worth of food and snacks.
Fiesta For The Food Bank is a grassroots event put on by five Snoqualmie women that benefits this backpack program. Last year, Bobbi Harrison, Jami Au, Heather Florida, Heidi Tingley, and Kellie Olson learned about the program and its funding needs, and knew they wanted to help.
Olson explained they didn’t want to do a food drive, saying, “It is more economical and efficient for the food bank to buy in bulk from discounters and put the same food in all the backpacks. Also, kids don’t really like canned cranberries from two Thanksgivings ago which is the kind of thing you get at food drives.”
So, to get creative to raise more money for these kids, the women took a chance and pooled all the money that they would have donated to the food bank themselves, and threw a charity lunch event. They used Facebook to send out
invitations, bought the lunch and raffle prizes (and had a few donated), and ended up raising $16,000 in a single afternoon – and well beyond their $5,000 goal!
This money was enough to provide 80 children with backpacks for the whole summer.
Olsen explained this year the Mt. Si Food Bank has 175 kids, whereas last year there were only 120 – so there is an even greater funding need this summer.
So Fiesta for the Food Bank is aiming to be even bigger and better than their successful freshman year – and organizers say everyone in the community is invited to help out by attending if they can.
The lunch will be held Tuesday, June 5th at 7022 Cascade Ave SE, Snoqualmie. It’s an open house event lasting from 11am-2pm. There is a $40 minimum donation to attend.
All donations include a catered lunch, drinks, and a raffle ticket. Prizes for the raffle include: Mariners tickets, Pineapple Life Yoga experiences, Glassybaby, and more.
In order to RSVP today, send an email to kellie.olson@comcast.net. To see the flyer with more information, click here.
