Have a beer, help stamp out hunger. 5th annual Tacoma brewery food drive underway
Ten Pierce County breweries, cideries and a taproom have teamed up with a local real-estate group for a friendly holiday competition that benefits the Emergency Food Network, one of the region’s largest such nonprofits that supports 2 million people annually.
During the fifth annual Hoppy Holiday Food Drive — now through Nov. 28 — visit any of the participating taprooms to drop off non-perishable foods and personal hygiene products. (Maybe stay for a drink!) You also can contribute financial donations directly to EFN in the name of your preferred brewery.
More than 1 in 10 Pierce County residents are considered to be food-insecure, according to Feeding America, a figure that for children rises to 1 in 6. The organization distributes some 13 million pounds of food annually through a network of about 75 partner sites. Though a majority of donations come from large supermarket chains, food drives organized by private companies, schools or individuals add to that number.
The brewery drive has supplied nearly 20,000 pounds since 2019.
On the final day of this year’s fundraiser, which coincides with Giving Tuesday, brewers and their teams will converge on Peaks and Pints in Tacoma’s Proctor District for the official “weigh-in” party. All are welcome, and guests are encouraged to donate either goods or dollars up until the final bell.
Whichever brewery hits the highest tally will be honored with a custom tap handle — this year’s theme is a truck loaded with groceries.
WHY A BREWERY FOOD DRIVE?
Catie and John Douville launched their annual fundraiser five years ago. Both born and raised in the Tacoma area, they worked in restaurants for more than a decade, meeting at the late C.I. Shenanigan’s, and have a penchant for Pierce County’s breweries and taprooms. She also has a background in nonprofits, so when they created their real-estate company Douville Home Group, part of Windermere Professional Partners, they knew they wanted to cultivate some kind of give-back model.
Having worked with small-scale food drives as agents, they wondered, “How could we make this more fun?” And, importantly, how could they make more of an impact?
With a thumbs-up from their friend Ron Swarner, owner of Peaks and Pints, they created the Hoppy Holiday Food Drive.
“We had two main goals: Bring food in for EFN, obviously, and continue to build and advance the beer community in Tacoma,” said John Douville.
They learned that many of the breweries they approached had considered such a fundraiser but didn’t necessarily have the staff and marketing capacity to pull it off.
“It’s an immediate ‘yes,’ despite hard hits from the pandemic, recession, supply chain, and labor crisis,” said Swarner, one of the city’s most respected beverage stewards. “We know many friends and neighbors may not be able to pull up a chair for a pint, but need our support and community nonetheless.”
John designs all of the marketing materials, including the posters, brewery-branded boxes and that victory tap handle. Ever organized, Catie manages scheduling, communication and more with the businesses and EFN. Together, they visit each location to get them set up and then spend several weeks promoting their beer and, naturally, the food drive.
They also produce some pretty amusing videos. In 2022, a year that garnered more than 5,000 pounds of food, a video showed a Campbell’s soup can rolling through each brewery and into a donation box. For 2023, John, acting as an EFN pickup driver, is in awe of how many boxes have accrued at Peaks and Pints.
In 2019, five breweries helped collect about 1,200 pounds of food, which, for the Douvilles, “was kind of wild” for a first attempt, recalled Catie.
As the need to drive down hunger grew as the pandemic raged, the 2020 and 2021 drives brought in more businesses and about 10,000 pounds of food. They also added the online donation option, expanding the ways people could support.
“It’s not just about the weight — it’s about getting the word out,” said John.
Though the breweries technically compete for taps and shelf space, the Pierce County industry “is rooting for everybody,” he added. “That’s the kind of people you want in a drive like this.”
Past winners include E9, Odd Otter and Narrows Brewing.
At the Nov. 28 celebration, in addition to awarding the Hoppy Holiday trophy, there will be raffles for brewery and cidery swag, the proceeds also benefiting EFN.
HOPPY HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE
▪ Nov. 7-28, hoppyholidayfooddrive.com
▪ Donations accepted at 12 locations, or donate dollars online in your favorite brewery’s name
▪ Final count and donation party at Peaks & Pints: Nov. 28, 6 p.m.
Participating businesses:
▪ 7 Seas Brewing, 2101 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 7seasbrewing.com
▪ Cockrell Cider, 6613 114th Ave. Ct. E., Puyallup, cockrellbrewing.com
▪ E9 Brewing Co., 2506 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, e9brewingco.com
▪ E9 Firehouse, 611 N. Pine St., Tacoma, ehouse9.com
▪ Fierce County Cider, 9918 162nd St. Ct. E., Puyallup, fiercecounty.com
▪ Incline Cider House, 2115 S. C St., Tacoma, inclinecider.com
▪ Narrows Brewing Co., 9007 S. 19th St., Tacoma, narrowsbrewing.com
▪ North 47 Brewing Co., 1000 Town Center NE, Tacoma, north47brewery.com
▪ Odd Otter Brewing Co., 716 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, oddotterbrewing.com
▪ Peaks & Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Tacoma, peaksandpints.com
▪ Sig Brewing Co., 2534 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, sigbrewingco.com
▪ Wet Coast Brewing Co., 6820 Kimball Dr., Gig Harbor, wetcoastbrewing.com
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 10:19 AM.