“It was an eerie feeling, as we shut our doors in lockdown,” recounts Mike Cohen, Executive Director of Bellingham Food Bank, “We all sat down together to imagine what our food bank could be.” Mike hired volunteer Kate Frazee as we shut our doors. She recounts, “I was a volunteer before COVID. Things have changed a lot since then. For example, the home delivery total was about 50 boxes per week, it took only a few volunteers to fill them, and the Chore Program and Francis Place got boxes to doorsteps. Now, we make over 900 home deliveries per week, with 16 volunteers working an assembly line to pack, and 40 volunteers to drive.”

Melanie Danner, BFB’s operations manager, has perhaps handled the most change in stride. “It was surreal,” she recalls, “we were building the airplane while we were flying it. Volunteers came to put their own health at risk to serve others.” Over the years, Melanie has gone from managing 1 program with a team of 3 staff members, to 3 programs with a team of 8 staff members (in addition to coordinating a steady troop 157 weekly volunteers). “We stopped assuming anything about the way we had been doing things and focused only on doing what worked.” There would be no predicting the shifting realities the Food Bank team has responded to in the past 5 years. Echoing Melanie, here is an overview of what has worked:

2020 – In response to COVID, we launched what would become drive-through and home delivery programs, and shifted to purchasing fresh wholesale food when grocery rescue became unreliable. That pivot became the backbone of our work and positioned us to meet rising community need.


2021 – Devastating floods pushed us to expand countywide home delivery, deepen partnerships beyond Bellingham, and invest more in local agriculture. We reopened for in-person shopping.


2022 –We reopened strengthened local government partnerships, and refined our food purchasing and distribution systems to stretch every dollar.


2023–2024 – Our shopper visits tripled from 2022. We also began hosting the county’s most-accessed Health Department naloxone station and Dental Bus partnerships to offer free dental care to shoppers.


2025 – In a year of uncertainty, highlighted by cuts to SNAP, our community showed extraordinary unity. We remain deeply committed to feeding our community, no matter what lies ahead.

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Exciting things are on the horizon for Hunger Vs Hunger!

With a new fitness challenge, community events and an even higher fundraising goal, there's lots to be done to prepare for Hunger VS Hunger Year Six. We're working hard to make sure that this year is more fun, exciting and empowering than ever before. We'll have some exciting announcements for you on Launch Day, May 1st. But before then, we need sponsors! If you or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring Hunger Vs Hunger, reach out to Ethan today.