Here's how food bank deals with expired food

In response to the Press photo with the caption "When in doubt, throw it out" dated 12/28/13, I would like to provide clarity on how our Community Action Partnership deals with expired foods.

The picture is showing a local Boy Scout sorting food by expiration date. Yes, we do sort by expiration date, but we DO NOT throw it out. Unfortunately as Cd'A Press staff was onsite that day, our food bank staff members were unavailable to ensure that accurate information was received. We are very thankful for the coverage of our need from the Cd'A Press and I believe it is important to clarify the caption. I have had numerous calls from people who know how our food bank works requesting that we clarify.

Within our food bank we have several food programs.

We have our Emergency Food Box Program which allows income eligible community members to receive three of these emergency boxes per year and qualify for a holiday box which we distribute at Thanksgiving. Food in the "emergency boxes" consists of current non-expired food. These boxes are adjusted by family size and designed to help a family for a few days.

Expired foods are placed on shelves in our "Market area" for eligible community members to take as they need it and the shelf is marked as expired donated items.

We have our "Market/Clearing House" program where eligible community members can come in one time a week to supplement their grocery budget with donated fresh product from local grocers. We have three vans that go to stores daily and accept their vegetables, fruits, dairy and other items that they are rotating out of their markets.

All of these items go directly into the shopping area for immediate distribution to our community.

In 2013, we served 5,915 unduplicated families which included 19,387 individuals through our market. An unduplicated number counts each identifiable household one time per year, regardless of the number of times they visit our food bank. This does not reflect the additional outreach numbers. The total number of visits to our food bank was 36,760 which fed 122,163 individuals. These are both duplicated numbers. Distribution was broken down by 52 percent were children younger than 18 years old, while 20 percent were senior citizens.

From our location we administer the Warehouse Distribution Program which distributes USDA government commodities to twenty nine food banks and/or meal sites in the five northern counties.

Through our Holiday Box Program where we work with community members to provide a Thanksgiving box, complete with a turkey and all the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner. In 2013 we distributed 2,813 baskets to qualified families.

Finally, we have our Homeless Distribution, Elder Help Food Bank and Guardian Veteran Programs. We served 536 unduplicated individuals on our Homeless distribution at Fresh Start and the St. Vincent De Paul HELP Center. Weekly, we support the Elder Help food distribution and the local Veterans meal program.

In 2013 we distributed a total of 2,087,204 pounds of food through our Food Bank. To get an idea of what that would look like, imagine 718 cars (1967 Volkswagen Beetle) in a parking lot. This would be the equivalent of this number, each filled with food. (Second Harvest - Inland Northwest provided us with this representative model to help our community visualize the distribution that reaches the community through our food bank). Our daily distribution would average 4.48 of these cars per working day.

The internet provides several resources that provide basic guidelines for the use of food. Two resources, FSA and USDA, provide basic guidelines for safe storage and distribution of food. We follow the basic FSA standards, including not distributing canned items with large dents along the rims of the can which could compromise the seal or cans with leaks along the seams or large dents (where the can is not able to stand alone), or cans with any visible rust coming from them. If the can looks extremely old and prior to the guidelines of ingredients and is questionable, we "open and dump" it to ensure that it would not be a potential health hazard to anyone. The only exception to the above is if it is baby food and formula. The baby products must be distributed prior to the expiration date.

In addition, we have local farmers and ranchers who retrieve any spoiled perishable items for their pigs, so we even "turn spoiled items into bacon."

Our food bank is in the final stages of the remodel completion. We are raising funds to purchase a freezer trailer which will enable us to receive multiple loads of free government frozen commodities offered to USDA warehouse distributors who have the capacity to receive the items. With our new warehouse capacity due to remodel, we were able to receive $383,970 of free non perishable items which was an increase of $182,911 over 2012. With the new freezer trailer we would have been able to secure an additional over $200,000 of meat and frozen product in 2013 alone. We are only approximately $6,000 from our goal of $20,000 which will include hard wiring for electric and energy saving bulk head.

Food banks across the region are experiencing a decrease of donations, which are the heartbeat of our organizations. We depend on our community members to help us as we are a catalyst to build relationships to inspire and equip people to end poverty in our community. Our largest food drives are in May (Postal food drive) and November (Boy Scout food drive). We try to make food donated during these food drive foods last as long as possible. Over the past few years the donations collected from these food drives has been approximately half the amount of years past. We also notice that the percentages of expired items have greatly increased. As previously referenced, we absolutely will use them, but we do sort our food by date to accommodate our multiple programs.

With budget cuts to our programs, we have become more dependent on our community donations and community members who donate their time to help us serve our friends and neighbors. In 2013 we had a total of 294 unduplicated community members help us in our mission with over 15,628 volunteer hours of service. We absolutely could not do this without them. Our deepest thanks to each one whether it is a financial or service donation. If you would like to donate your time in helping us serve, please call our volunteer line 770-3018. I am committed to ensuring that each donation whether monetary or food items be used in the most responsible way.

I certainly hope this clarifies the Dec. 28 picture and editor comments which were valid concerns. I can assure you that all food that is donated is processed and used to help our community.

I would like to invite our community to visit our food bank and see our operation at work. It would be helpful to call for an appointment so you can get a guided tour. My desk line is 770-3018. Thank you so much for your support.

Carolyn Shewfelt is program manager of the Community Action Partnership Food Bank.