State Ag Director confident state supply will keep up with staggering demand at food banks

In the last month, when food banks around the state saw an explosive increase in demand for food while traditional retail food supplies were quickly becoming scarce, Washington Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison faced an unprecedented challenge.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this, this is not easy," said Sandison, who was oversees a state food supply network which was never geared to deal with the staggering sudden crisis of families stripped of income after Governor Inslee's state shutdowns to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

"There's no secret stockpile anywhere," he said. "But there's multiple efforts at the federal level to bring resources to bear on this with both food and money to help us through this situation."

"We're going to have to maintain more food supplies in food banks than we've ever had to deal with in the past, probably through July, maybe even longer," Sandison said, adding that the state and federal government are scrambling to come up with new sources for food to keep up with a nationwide crisis.

''Typically (the state) orders food from the Federal Government, and that process takes time." Facing weeks or months of waiting for orders while grocery supplies are strained by demand, Sandison said the agency is pivoting to restaurant suppliers for food supplies.

"This other side of the food chain has a lot of food available," Sandison said. "We're again working to figure out how we transition that food from a normal restaurant supply chain, to get to food banks."

Sandison said with the action of federal, state and private efforts, he's confident there should be enough supply to keep pace with the historic need.

"Collectively, we're going to do the job that we need to do to make sure that we keep food in our food banks and food pantries. We do need to immediately start thinking about how do we rebuild our system in such a way that we have the resilience to withstand something like this again."

Sandison mentioned private efforts like Northwest Philanthropy and others will help keep supplies in local food banks stretched to their limits.

"Any way you can pitch in, every little bit helps and helps us work through this," he said.

KIRO 7 Cares is doing its part, teaming with QFC for Together Against Hunger, a virtual food drive to benefit Food Lifeline. Viewers can visit any QFC store across Western Washington to make a donation. For those who want to give, but are staying at home, they can also donate online at www.foodlifeline.org.

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