For Weight Watchers employee Debbie Hugo, the idea of killing two birds with one stone just made sense.

Six years ago, Hugo brainstormed an idea with her members in Kent that quickly caught fire: For every pound they lost, they would donate an equivalent amount of food to a local food bank.

In 2007, Weight Watchers President David Kirchhoff found out about Hugo’s idea and decided every branch of the national weight loss chain should incorporate the food drive into its program. Last year, members of the Puyallup and Bonney Lake branches got involved with the “Lose for Good” campaign, which recently finished up its second incarnation.

Over an eight-week span, the Weight Watchers membership in East Pierce County lost a collective total of more than 4,000 pounds and donated nearly 2,000 pounds of food to the Puyallup Valley Food Bank and Step By Step Ministry, a group that specifically supports families.

Janis Hanson was the lead volunteer for efforts at the Puyallup Weight Watchers branch. As an employee and lifetime member of the organization, which she achieved by maintaining a 36-pound weight loss for the past 15 years, Hanson said the “Lose for Good” campaign was the type of motivating force many people can get behind.

“It’s a great principle of, ‘I don’t need to eat something but somebody else does,’” Hanson said. “(Our members) said this is what they wanted to lose and then they lost it.”

After raising almost a ton of non-perishable food items, the Puyallup and Bonney Lake branches decided to split their donations to serve two charities. Hanson said she wasn’t sure how many Weight Watchers members in East Pierce County participated, but her weekly meetings can draw as many as 75 participants.

“Lose for Good” appears to be successful far and wide as Weight Watchers spokeswoman Jenny McCarthy, a well-known model, spread the word through a national television campaign. The organization donates up to $1 million annually to Share Our Strength, a domestic program aimed at childhood hunger and Action Against Hunger, an international effort focusing on hunger issues in third-world countries.

The “Lose for Good” campaign significantly impacts charities on a local level, said Shanna Peterson, a longtime volunteer with the Puyallup Valley Food Bank. Group-based donations are especially crucial at a time when the Puyallup bank is serving a larger population than ever before and is struggling to meet demands.

“The needs that our community has are just climbing dramatically,” Peterson said. “People are remembering to be benevolent during the holidays. But hunger doesn’t have a holiday — it’s every day for all of these families.”

The Puyallup bank used to see about 25 families per day during peak rush, Peterson said. That number has increased to 35 per day, which means the food bank often runs out of items toward the end of each month. The rise of needy families is more than doubling the recent increase in donations, she added.

The food bank leased a warehouse about 18 months ago to expand its space. But its parent group, FISH Food Banks of Pierce County, has been unsuccessful in grant-writing opportunities to find a permanent building, Peterson said.

“We’re running in the red every month,” she said. “We’re certainly needing financing to continue our mission.”

Food bank officials are inviting the public to attend an open house from 2-5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7. Visitors will be given informational tours highlighting the food bank’s various programs.

The bank’s needs go beyond non-perishable food items, Peterson said. Financial gifts or gift cards to specific businesses can help the bank buy butter, cheese, milk and other foods that spoil quickly. Bar soap, toilet paper and various hygiene products are also in high demand.

The donations from Weight Watchers did give the food bank a much-needed boost in the short term, Peterson added.

“They knew of the need and they thought that would be a great way to encourage people to lose weight and help others at the same time,” she said. “It has been a huge benefit for us.”