Blaine City Council gives another $50,000 to food bank

Blaine City Council unanimously voted 7-0 during its April 10 meeting to give another $50,000 of federal Covid-19 stimulus funds for Blaine Food Bank to purchase milk. The funds will support the food bank as it’s faced with feeding more families as food prices rise. 

“Hunger in our community is very real,” Blaine Food Bank operations manager Sally Church told councilmembers. “Unless you drive by our location and see the people queued up to receive food in the rain, wind, snow and heat, it is virtually invisible.”

This is only the second time the food bank has asked the city for money since it started 51 years ago, Church said. In August, city council approved giving $50,000 of its $1.6 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the food bank for purchasing milk.

Church said the $50,000 received last year will be depleted by May, and would have been gone sooner if it weren’t for Edaleen Dairy’s “Give a Gallon” program. The food bank’s annual matching funds campaign used to pay for milk and eggs, but now only covers eggs, she said. 

In 2022, the food bank received $289,000 from city, county, state and federal governments. Other cities such as Ferndale, Lynden and Bellingham typically provide regular funding to their food banks, Church said.

The Bellingham Food Bank, on behalf of all Whatcom County food banks, requested $1 million in ARPA funds from Whatcom County. If approved, Blaine would receive about $120,000 of those funds, Church said. 

The food bank is seeing increased demand due to a combination of economic fallout from the pandemic, suspended government programs, inflation, Blaine’s increasing population and the end of emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds in March, Church said. 

The food bank served 400 families per week during the pandemic, which increased 50 percent to 600 families per week last month. This comes as donations are down 60 percent from 2022, Church said.

The food bank is the second busiest in Whatcom County and the only one made up of all volunteers, she added. Church said the funds would “ease the pain of unprecedented need that has been met by an unanticipated price increase and diminished resources.”

Councilmember Eric Davidson said he was in favor of helping the food bank but wanted to cut $50,000 from the city budget. 

Councilmember Rhyan Lopez agreed with Davidson and questioned if council should start looking closer at the food bank’s numbers.

“It’s $50,000 today but four months from now, who are we to deny somebody like [the Community Assistance Program] coming in and saying they need $50,000?” Lopez asked.

The city has $411,000 in unallocated ARPA funds for emergency use, city finance director Daniel Heverling told councilmembers. 

“It’s raining,” councilmember Garth Baldwin said. “And that money is set aside for a rainy day.”