Ship to Shore looks to fill ‘SnackYak’ with food donations for Gig Harbor Peninsula FISH

Looking to connect the community and support families in need, Ship to Shore Marine & Kayak is hosting a food drive for Gig Harbor Peninsula FISH.

The food drive began Nov. 21 and will continue through Dec. 19 in order to bring in as much holiday food as possible, said Ship to Shore president Julia Stearns.

“It just made sense to include this as part of our community outreach in our store,” she said. “We get kind of caught up in the day to day of (the) product in our store and the only critical element is wanting to give back to the community.”

The goal is to fill the “SnackYak,” a kayak set up in the store where donations of non-perishable food will be gathered.

“If they can just keep on bringing (donations) in, I want to fill up the back of my SUV,” Stearns said with a laugh. “Our hope is that people who are (donating) already will stop by.”

The items sought for the food drive are non-perishable holiday foods, such as canned cranberry sauce, boxed stuffing mixes, potato mixes and baking ingredients.

“Things that we would be serving our families,” Stearns explained.

FISH will put together holiday baskets filled with food for families in need in the Gig Harbor community to help make sure that everyone gets a holiday meal.

“If we can give back and give others a chance to have a better holiday season, that’s a great thing,” Stearns said.

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Ship to Shore looks to fill ‘SnackYak’ with food donations for Gig Harbor Peninsula FISH."