Free diapers, insurance, teaching about farming. This Pierce County center helps families
The local nonprofit Food Backpacks 4 Kids (FB4K) has stepped in to run a family resource center on the Key Peninsula, filling a gap in services for young families after the center closed this past spring.
The organization, which started delivering food in 2009 to children in backpacks packed by volunteers on the Key Peninsula, also has plans to open a new facility in Key Center on a parcel they recently purchased, according to Food Backpacks 4 Kids Executive Director Zaida Woodworth.
The new center is at 9127 154th Ave. Court NW in Lakebay, according to a news release from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. The department oversees nine other Family Resource Centers throughout the county.
The nonprofit Akin previously ran the Family Resource Center at 17010 S. Vaughn Road. Children’s Home Society of Washington ran the center before merging with another family service organization, Childhaven, to become Akin. The center first began operating in 1995, The News Tribune reported. Akin cited staffing and funding challenges when it closed in May.
In a rural area like the Key Peninsula, which has few grocery stores and no public transportation, the gap left behind was “huge,” Woodworth told The News Tribune Nov. 7.
“When people are without means, they are really isolated,” Woodworth said. “And so not to have a resource provider out here really undercut families and their ability to access resources.”
With the lack of childcare on the peninsula, many “families struggle to provide on one income because someone has to stay home with the kids,” she told The News Tribune.
Under Akin, the Family Resource Center offered families a place to pick up basic supplies, take parenting and life skills classes and get referrals for assistance paying rent and utilities, The News Tribune reported.
Food Backpacks 4 Kids will offer similar resources, just like the other nine centers run under the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. The health department website shows that each center’s services vary slightly but they generally offer free diapers, food, support programs for parents and help accessing health insurance such as Apple Health.
“We’re excited to partner with Food Backpacks 4 Kids to help provide much needed resources to folks on the Key Peninsula,” Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department spokesperson Kenny Via told The News Tribune via email Nov. 7.
Along with a $60,000 grant from the health department, the partnership allows Food Backpacks 4 Kids to access a support network and incorporate programs from the health department like the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) into services they already provide, according to Woodworth.
Food Backpacks 4 Kids purchased a 24-by-14-foot shed to house the Family Resource Center on Oct. 9, according to Woodworth. They’re working on renovating the interior and connecting the building to electricity so they can use it as an office and supply space. It will also give them a space to have confidential conversations with families.
The shed is next to Food Backpacks 4 Kids’ current building, which houses their food inventory, offices and a small grocery store and is “extremely cramped,” Woodworth said.
She said that Food Backpacks 4 Kids will eventually move the Family Resource Center to a 6.7 acre piece of land the organization just purchased in Key Center, the equivalent of a few city blocks away from their current property. A new building will house the center along with a kitchen and food pantry.
They’ll also start a farm on the property and teach families cooking, gardening and life skills through their Food 4 All program. Food Backpacks 4 Kids currently leases the Creviston Valley Farm, a farm in Longbranch that spans about 40 acres, to grow food for their food bank and teach families about farming and agriculture.
The Key Peninsula is one of the health department’s “Communities of Focus,” which “offer fewer options to improve health than others,” Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department spokesperson Via wrote.
According to the health department website, those who live in “communities of focus” tend to face greater barriers to good health because of their income and trouble accessing higher education, affordable housing, transportation and healthy food.
When Akin closed its Key Peninsula location, stepping in felt “like a very natural fit” for Food Backpacks 4 Kids, Woodworth said. “It’s formalizing and funding programs that we’ve already been acting on.”
More services provided by Food Backpacks 4 Kids are listed on their website at www.foodbackpacks4kids.org and the health department website. For more information, call (253) 857-7401.
