It’s gray in here and the lighting is quite dim. Boxes of bananas, government-provided canned goods and miscellaneous containers of cookies and candy are stacked to the ceiling. It feels like a Costco, except the food and supplies are not for sale. I’m poking around the warehouse of Pierce County’s Emergency Food Network.

The Emergency Food Network (EFN) was established as a nonprofit in 1991 and serves as Pierce County’s sole nonprofit food distributor. Not to be confused with a food bank (where people come to accept food if they are hungry), EFN services more than 74 food programs and food banks within Pierce County on a daily basis. Essentially, they act as a warehouse space for large deliveries of food coming into the area. It is estimated that 780,569 people use food banks and pantries in Pierce County annually, making EFN’s role crucial.

According to the national hunger organization Share Our Strength, one in every six households with children experiences food insecurity, defined by America’s Second Harvest as: “Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”

Even more staggering statistics are the numbers for single-parent homes: One in four single-dad homes depend on food assistance programs each year. It goes up to one in three for single moms with children at home; 31 percent of all pantry clients, people who depend on food banks for some part of the year, are not only food insecure but they experience actual hunger.

Here’s the good news: EFN’s system is working. They continue to move over $1 million worth of food through their doors each month. In 2007, EFN distributed over 9.3 million pounds of food valued at more than $13.3 million. Using a multifaceted food procurement model, EFN is able to both accept most food deliveries offered and store them properly within the warehouse. This allows EFN to meet demand and stockpile goods to carry them through potential lean times, just like any effective business supplier. Approximately 95 percent of the food coming in arrives from grocery stores (food they can’t sell), food drives (churches and other private contributions) and government programs (supplying shelf-stable foods like spaghetti and canned peaches).

The other 5 percent comes from a small group of innovative programs, some of which enable EFN to deliver fresh and local food to those who need it most. Together, these programs supplement donated food and ensure that EFN is able to meet both the food and nutrition needs of individuals seeking emergency food in Pierce County.

The Cannery: A Partnership in Preserving
In a rare partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, EFN volunteers show up in hairnets and grubbies at a cannery in Kent nearly each week. Of the 12 canneries owned by the church nationally, this is the only cannery open to an outside partner. EFN entered this relationship back in 1996 as a means to more efficiently preserve food they could not move into the food system quickly enough. Rather than letting food go to waste, EFN brings both food (mostly frozen bulk foods from distributors) and volunteers into the cannery.

The process of canning is “very much like Laverne and Shirley,” says Gina Breukelman, development director for EFN. Volunteers turn frozen foods into canned goods, prolonging their shelf life from six months to two years. The process of canning keeps emergency food levels in healthy supply and allows EFN to accept more of the food offers brought to them.

“Prior to starting the cannery and repack projects, we were unable to accept donations of bulk frozen product because we did not have an effective way of repackaging the product for distribution to individuals and families,” says David Ottey, executive director of EFN.

The Re-Pack Tent
Often, when excess grocery store food comes into EFN’s warehouse, it comes on large pallets. A 1,500- to 1,700-pound pallet of frozen corn is comparable to the size of a mature Holstein cow: way more than anyone can eat in a year, let alone store in a typical home freezer. These large shipments must be broken down to family-size portions or they will go to waste.

Relying on private grants to purchase the necessary equipment, EFN developed a section of their warehouse into the repack area. This consists of a large, tented space housing a rudimentary setup with a large stainless steel table and work top, along with a device called a tote dumper, which hoists the frozen foods up for the volunteers.

The pallets are emptied en masse and volunteers surround the table, working manually to repack the food (often frozen corn kernels or green beans) into one- to two-pound portions. In a typical three-hour shift, volunteers can repack up to 10,000 pounds. These home-friendly portions are then delivered to the food banks.

EFN also actively participates in the Free Food Banking Network (FFBN), partnering with other food distribution centers. FFBN is a program whereby food distribution centers share goods across the nation. If NW Harvest (a similar program in King County) has a glut of carrots and EFN has a glut of corn, they are able to swap and share.

Mother Earth Farm
Located in the Puyallup Valley, Mother Earth Farm was started in 2000. Sitting on eight acres of inexpensively leased land, Mother Earth Farm is managed by a one-woman powerhouse, Carrie Little, a smart and savvy farmer who focuses her attention on heirloom crops and seed saving. Last season, this small parcel produced 37 different fruits and vegetables including more than 28 tomato varieties.

In its first year as a full-fledged, functioning farm, Mother Earth produced 50,000 pounds of organic food, all of which was freely given to local food banks. In 2007, the number of pounds of organic food produced on the farm increased to 150,000 pounds, all of which was provided fresh, on day of harvest, to over 20 Pierce County food banks.

8 They could not do this without dedicated volunteers during the growing season. Within a year, over 2,000 volunteers will have helped keep this farm running, including volunteers from the Washington Correctional Center for Women. Moreover, in order to help facilitate distribution, 20 to 30 food bank workers will be at the farm to pick up the fresh food for their clients much like a CSA operates when crops are in.

In Mother Earth’s fields you will find ethnic specialty ingredients, as well as bio-diverse crops. In order to determine what to grow, EFN interviews their food bank clients. Hot peppers sit next to bok choy; cilantro grows near the Yellowstone carrots. One of the most memorable crops last year was the Black Russian tomato.

“We brought it to them [the Russian population)] and the women were singing and crying,” remembers Carrie. Locally, there are large Hispanic, Russian and Asian populations, so Mother Earth caters to them as much as possible.

On the growing schedule for next year? “You can’t go wrong with the root crops, and the tomatoes are so appreciated,” she says excitedly. There are also 11 beehives onsite, allowing some honey to enter the food system. Last year, Mother Earth distributed 700 pounds of honey.

While Mother Earth Farm supplies a mere 1.7 percent of the total food donated through EFN, the act of growing local fresh food for food bank pantries is a rare one that is garnering much-deserved attention. Carrie Little received an honorable mention from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education awards in 2004 for her hard work. Mother Earth’s partner project, Thurston County Orchard (see below), beat out over 20 other nominees when it won a Community Development Award from the National Association for County Community and Economic Development in 2007.

Thurston County Orchard
Out in the far stretches of Thurston County sits another piece of donated land that EFN is responsible for tending. The orchard sits on acreage that was once on the Department of Ecology’s high-priority cleanup list. Pierce County took over this neglected swath of land in 1999 and has since recruited EFN as a stewardship partner.

In 2005, after years of property cleanup and soil testing, 13 acres of fruit trees were planted. Volunteers put in over 300 apple and plum trees that should be ready for harvest in 2010. Once the crop comes in, fresh fruit will be distributed along with the vegetables already filling the food banks each season. Additionally, there are plans to preserve some fruits and dehydrate others for longevity.

The Orchard, the Cannery and Mother Earth Farm combine efforts to bring fresh fruits and vegetables from farm to table for those who do not have the luxury of farmers’ markets or plentiful home gardens. Emergency Food Network is the only known nonprofit in the nation operating such programs. They have taken their accessibility to plentiful farmland and fertile soil and acted creatively to bring modern nutrition to needy people in Pierce County.

Today, food bank clients can pick up their “salsa bag” and head home with just-harvested jalapeños, tomatoes and garlic. These ingenious programs have officially taken the local food movement to a whole new level.

Visit Emergency Food Network online at efoodnet.org.

Amy Pennington is a food writing, vegetable gardening, martini drinking, radio producing, food lovin’ all around green-conscious girl. gogogreengarden.com