Local organizations prepare Thanksgiving meals for food insecure families

SPOKANE, Wash. – Nonprofits across the region are working to give families in need a Thanksgiving dinner. Local organizations say demand for holiday meals is higher this year as families continue to struggle with food insecurity.

One Heart in Spokane is fundraising to provide meals to 400 families from local school districts this Thanksgiving. That’s 100 more meals than last year, and demand is rising quickly.

“The high prices of food this year, it’s outrageous and a lot of families can’t afford that,” said Justin Vaughn, executive director of One Heart Spokane. “So if we can be a helping hand in any way for that, we’re going to jump in as much as we can.”

One Heart will hand out meals at its Pacific Avenue location the day before Thanksgiving. The organization hopes for more donations to fund all the meals it wants to distribute.

“That’s the main thing that we need right now,” Vaughn said. “Our volunteer base is pretty heavy and so that’s taken care of. Now we’re just trying to meet it financially. It is about a $40,000 event.”

Second Harvest is also working to help families. It recently got a $100,000 donation from Spokane County to help provide holiday meals specifically for rural food pantries.

“Rural areas, they have certain extra hurdles that a lot of folks are trying to manage,” said Eric Williams from Second Harvest. “With helping to get food to those pantries in the rural part of the county, then people don’t have to drive as far, they don’t have to come into town to get to a pantry.”

Cash donations help bring in seasonal items like turkey and mashed potatoes.

“Other times of year, people really want fresh produce and other times of year we have a lot of that,” Williams said. “So it’s really helpful to be able to gauge a little bit and us maneuver to be able to get what people want most this time of year.”

Second Harvest says it’s always in need of donations and volunteers through the holidays.