Dear friends,

We hope this letter finds you well and want to express our gratitude for your ongoing support of Bellingham Food Bank. Your generosity plays a vital role in the work we're doing to support thousands of families in need. Despite facing increased demand and challenges in accessing food, our team has achieved significant milestones that wouldn't have been possible without your help.

Before the pandemic, we spent just under $1 million on food annually. In 2023, we surpassed $3 million and anticipate similar needs in 2024. Your contributions are crucial for meeting the growing demand and ensuring a consistent supply of fresh, healthy, and culturally familiar foods. Over 5,000 households visit us weekly, and this has increased greatly from 1,700 weekly visits in 2021. Your support helps us to maintain commitment to our values, programs, and collaborations despite the pressure of serving so many people.

Our programs include the free grocery program serving 3,600 households weekly, home delivery serving 800 households weekly, and the drive-through serving 600 households weekly. In addition, we maintain collaborations with Bellingham Technical College, Sea Mar's Cordata clinic, Agape Service Project, and the Whatcom County Food Bank Network. As we remain the busiest food bank in the State of Washington, we count our blessings to be backed by wonderful people such as yourselves. Your continued support fuels our excitement for our work. Thank you for being an essential part of our mission.

Mike Cohen

Executive Director

Stephanie Sisson

Communications Coordinator

TRUE TO SCALE

BFB’s volunteer force is a small battalion with more than 460 active members each year. Volunteers operate all of our programs, doing jobs that range from personally delivering food to people’s doorsteps to re-bagging bulk elbow macaroni. The daily contributions our volunteers and donors have allowed us to provide food to the community for over 50 years. Together we hope this work seeds a future where everyone has access to the food they need and want.

Here is what we accomplished this year:

Programs that support food banks with free or low-cost food are struggling to keep pace with increased demand statewide. BFB continues to buy more food to keep our shelves consistently stocked, and could not serve anywhere near 5,000 households a week on free or low-cost food alone. Your community donations play a crucial role in maintaining the stability of our food supply and the quality of service we provide.