Gig Harbor’s food bank is getting a new home. Here’s why its staff can hardly wait
There will be a big groundbreaking June 29 for the new Gig Harbor-Peninsula FISH Food Bank building, with all sorts of hoopla, popping flashes and public officials awkwardly wielding gold shovels.
Sorry, but you’re not invited.
“We’d like to invite the whole city,” said Jan Coen, the FISH food bank coordinator. “But COVID has made that impossible, I’m afraid. So the groundbreaking will be invitation-only.”
That hasn’t prevented the FISH staff and its dozens of volunteers from being basically over the moon about their new building, expected to be completed in 2022. Rising directly across the street from the current headquarters at at 4425 Burnham Drive, it will replace a cramped, rambling warren of rented spaces bursting at the seams.
“We’re so excited,” Coen told The Gateway last week. “It’s like a dream come true.”
The $4.7 million building will have 10,000 feet of covered space, enough for two large warehouses — one for food, one for clothing.
“There will be five offices, a nice lobby which is going to be just beautiful, a large room for clothing, and another very large room for shopping for food,” Coen said. “Clients will be able to shop like they are in a grocery store.”
At present, because of COVID restrictions, volunteers have been bagging groceries from client wish lists and bringing them out to their cars. With the new building, FISH hopes to bring back self-service shopping in a store-like environment
Expanding mission
The new building will come just as the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the volunteer-based charity, and it’s floor plan reflects its expanding mission. Those five offices are for interviewing people who need financial aid, like help with rent or utilities.
“It will give us more privacy for clients who need to come in for assistance other than food,” said Coen. “Right now, that’s difficult to do, and people are often embarrassed.” Many people laid off in the pandemic had good jobs — and stiff mortgages — and are not used to asking for help, she said.
“In reality, that has always been the case,” she added. “Even back in the Boeing bust, we had people who had been living very well, and suddenly had no income.”
Although Gig Harbor and its surrounding area are considered fairly affluent, about 40 percent of the population are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent United Way study. In some parts of the Key Peninsula, the figure approaches 60 percent.
“They may be working their tails off, but they have limited assets, little money in the bank, and somebody gets sick, they lose their job, the car breaks down, and suddenly you’ve depleted all your assets,” said Ron Coen.
The charity’s annual report for 2020 notes that over 10,000 individuals aided with food, close to $312,000 in financial aid, and more than $8,000 in student aid. That’s beyond the estimated 211,900 meals provided to traditional clients.
Hither and yon
Since its beginnings in 1976, the food bank has expanded, higgledly-piggledy, into whatever space it could find.
“Basically, we’ve got four old buildings hooked together,” said Ron Coen, the president and board chairman. “The largest of them is the old Gig Harbor Theater. That’s the most usable space. Then we’ve got two buildings that used to be houses, and some rented space from the Eagles Lodge.”
That’s led to some inefficiencies.
“We’ve got toilet supplies in one place, blankets and linens in other, food supplies in various corners,” said Jan Coen. “It will be wonderful to have everything within easy reach.”
Plans for the new building include two large warehouse spaces, one for food and another for clothing, a covered loading dock and a room for emergency supplies, like blankets and linens, for people left homeless by fires or evictions.. The food section open to the public will be “about the size of a neighborhood grocery story,” Ron Coen said, and similarly stocked.
There will also be expanded freezer and cooler space, which means FISH will be able to deliver more meat and fresh vegetables, a longtime goal.
The whole project is costing about $7.5 million — about $4.5 million for the building itself, and the rest for land, site work, permitting, furniture and fixtures. In addition, the charity would like to set aside $500,000 as an endowment.
The architects on the project are Jeanne Ratcliffe-Gagliano of Ratcliffe-Gagliano Architects, Zerah Florance of Washington Patriot and Scott Kaul of AHBL
FISH has already raised about $2.57 million in donations, mostly from local foundations, philanthropists and businesses. Another $2 million is expected from the state in the form of grants. Amy Gartlan and former city councilman Spencer Hutchins have been leading the fundraising effort.
“People have just been so generous,” said Jan Coen. “It’s all because this community cares.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 5:30 AM.