Photo By Douglas Stutz | From the chopping block to holiday basket ... Naval Hospital Bremerton Sailors help in...... read more read more
BREMERTON, Wash. - Hunger does not take time off. Trying to alleviate it can be a daunting notion locally as well as globally.
Naval Hospital Bremerton Sailors helped those less fortunate to cope with their personal food shortage on Dec. 19, 2015, by assisting at the Bremerton Foodline in assembling approximately 600 food baskets for needy families.
“What we’re doing as volunteers is producing very tangible results in the fight against hunger. I helped out last year and being here for me feels like a good way to give back and support the community,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Hannah Pickett, a Forest Grove, Oregon, native assigned to Branch Health Clinic Bangor.
Pickett was one of two dozen staff members from NHB’s Second Class Petty Officer Association (SCPOA) and Junior Enlisted Association (JEA) who helped out along with other local community volunteers on the Saturday before Christmas.
“Hunger happens every day in our community. We thank the Naval Hospital Sailors for volunteering. What they’re doing helps our community, helps our neighbors and helps those who need help,” stated Mr. Earl Burt, Bremerton Foodline Board of Directors president.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (Fleet Marine Force) Christopher Spangler, of NHB’s Staff Education and Training Department and SCPOA president explained that the SCPOA organized the event with HM2 David Manthei as the volunteer chairman took the lead by contacting Patti Peterson, Bremerton Foodline executive director, to work out the time and date to assist.
“As SCPOA president, I assisted in the event coordination and volunteers with the JEA. The response from others was tremendous! As soon as the opportunity arose for us to volunteer, we had a lot of individuals wanting to take part. What was really impressive is how genuine the volunteers were after hearing about the opportunity. They wanted to give back in a big way. They did it because they genuinely care about the community and those who are less fortunate, especially during the holidays,” said Spangler, adding that every year the SCPOA looks for volunteer events around the holidays in which to give back to the community.
According to Burt, the volunteers worked in preparing and organizing the hundreds of food baskets which were in a variety of sizes, with some put together for families with up to seven members. Putting together the baskets is always a labor intensive, time-consuming process.
“We love it when the Navy comes in waves like this to help. We have had Sailors from the (USS) Nimitz (CVN 68), Chaplains office (at Naval base Kitsap) and Naval Hospital Bremerton. They are hard-working, friendly, and love being part of the community and doing their part to help out. They are amazing,” exclaimed Tracy Denham, Foodline operation supervisor.
There were containers of produce from salad ingredients like celery and carrots to potatoes and onions, crates of apples and oranges, canned vegetables and canned fruit, and cases of turkey, chicken and ham.
No donated food goes to waste. Even the portion swept off the table from preparing the celery and carrots not considered for human consumption are gathered to contribute to local farmers for their livestock.
“Every little bit helps,” Denham said.
The Bremerton Foodline is part of the Kitsap Food Bank coalition with seven other sites forming a network with the overlapping goal of ‘working hard to alleviate hunger throughout the county.’
The past few years the SCPOA has worked closely with the local food lines to assist during the holidays and it has turned into a tradition to assist with the Bremerton Foodline around Christmas.
“As command representatives we hope to make an impact in the community by giving back especially those who have fallen on hard times. In the Navy we move around every three years to a new state, city, community, and each time we’re accepted. This is our way of saying thank you and giving back. Kitsap County is unique in that we have a huge military presence here and lots of prior service members retire here. Some of the retirees have fallen on hard times and this gives current active duty members an opportunity to thank them for their service by volunteering their time to give back to them,” Spangler said.
“It’s neat that we make a difference. We are a safety net. We see a variety of clients from elders to even those in the military. We’re their resource if all else is not there. We have those who come all the time and there are others that we help two or three times a year. November and December are always a focal point, not only because it’s the holiday season but also because the weather can turn severe. The donated supplies we get we hope can be extended to March and April, but as we all know, hunger is every day,” added Burt.
The Bremerton Foodline vision is to strive to nourish and enrich the lives of neighbors in need and their mission is to provide food assistance and other services to reduce hunger and improve self-sufficiency for those within our community.
Research compiled across the U.S. showed that there were approximately 17.5 million families who struggled to afford food. The 2013 study revealed that those households were food insecure, meaning that they had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all the household members. Of that number 6.8 million households had very low food security, and faced the difficult choice between food and housing, food and medicine, food and childcare, and food and heat.
| Date Taken: | 12.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.22.2015 15:07 |
| Story ID: | 185177 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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