A Key Peninsula food bank is facing eviction

HOME — In the middle of a pandemic and its busiest time of the year, the Key Peninsula Bischoff Food Bank is being evicted.

A complaint was filed in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday, Nov. 6, requesting that the food bank be dispossessed of the rented property at 1916 Key Peninsula Highway.

It’s part of a long-running dispute between the charity and the heirs of a local food bank supporter who once owned the property, a two-bedroom mobile home on 3.5 acres catercorner from the fire station in Home.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Kimberly Miller, a vice-president of the nonprofit food bank. “We are still paying rent, but they are refusing to cash our checks.”

The property belongs to the son and daughter of Jim Solberg, a food bank supporter who died four years ago. He allowed the food bank to move there in 2013, charging a nominal monthly rent of $800.

“Jim was an amazing man, an incredible human being,” Miller said. “If he had known he was going to die, he would probably have willed the property to the food bank.”

The heirs, identified in court papers as James Solberg and Andrea Goff, want to sell the property, and the food bank was interested, Miller said, but the heirs wanted $200,000 — more than the food bank board though it was worth.

“It’s butted up against wetlands, the trailer is in bad shape, the septic system is shot, the well keeps failing,” Miller said. The charity made an offer of $96,000 on April 30, which the owners refused.

“That’s when they stopped cashing our checks,” Miller said.

Attorneys for the Solberg heirs did not immediately return a request for comment.

Named for its founder, Ross Bischoff, the food bank is one of only two on the Key Peninsula, where many families are low-income and hurting from pandemic job losses.

“Ross started it with a little card table at the Lutheran Church, and now we feed about 36,000 people a year, on average,” Miller said. “We’re the best-kept secret on the Peninsula.”

The Key Peninsula Community Services Center also operates a food bank, with a similar mission.

The Bischoff food bank is looking for another home, preferably along the Highway 302 corridor, where the zoning is favorable. They hope to find a property to buy or rent on a long-term lease. Donations would help, Miller said.

Eviction orders can take up to 90 days, but “we’ll have to start moving pretty soon,” Miller said, and its only two weeks until Thanksgiving.

“We’re taking it one day at a time,” she said. “We have seen darker days. A blessing will come, I’m sure.”

The Key Peninsula Bischoff Food Bank website is at http://www.kpbischofffoodbank.org

This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 5:30 AM.