Tulalip Tribes donate to food bank

The Tulalip Tribes upped their regular annual donation of $15,000 to the Marysville Community Food Bank by another $5,000 this year, to bolster the fledging “Food for Thought” program that’s set to expand to three schools.

By Kirk Boxleitner • November 20, 2012 12:43 pm
Members of the Tulalip Tribes and the Marysville Community Food Bank met up at the Food Bank’s building on Nov. 15 for the Tulalip Tribal members to hand over a check for $20
Members of the Tulalip Tribes and the Marysville Community Food Bank met up at the Food Bank’s building on Nov. 15 for the Tulalip Tribal members to hand over a check for $20

MARYSVILLE — The Tulalip Tribes upped their regular annual donation of $15,000 to the Marysville Community Food Bank by another $5,000 this year, to bolster the fledging “Food for Thought” program that’s set to expand to three schools.

Quil Ceda Village General Manager Steve Gobin credited both the Marysville and Tulalip communities with placing a shared value on the importance of charitable giving.

“This is a larger than normal donation for us, but we understand that there’s a growing need in this community,” Gobin said. “The homeless population is growing every day. We’d like to help the citizens of Marysville who have been such big contributors to our own economic enterprises, and the most effective way of doing that is to help those in need stay alive, and to help their kids stay healthy.”

Marysville Community Food Bank Director Dell Deierling explained that the Tulalip Tribes’ regular $15,000 donation would go, as it does each year, toward “filling in the gaps” of needed food items and utility payments for the winter holiday season, from Thanksgiving through Christmas and the New Year, while Amy Howell, coordinator of the Food Bank’s “Food For Thought” program, elaborated on how the additional $5,000 would benefit students at the Liberty, Quil Ceda and Shoultes elementary schools.

“They were chosen through input from their teachers, counselors, principal and lunchroom staff,” Howell said. “Their families sign permission slips to approve them for the program, and nobody above the school level knows which students they are, aside from the ones that I’ve met with personally, so nobody feels like they’re being singled out.”

With the impending addition of 25 students from Shoultes to the 25 students from Quil Ceda and 30 students from Liberty who are already served by the program, Howell has already met her enrollment goal for the spring of 2013, and she’s eager to expand those numbers even further, to serve more students who would otherwise go hungry between the close of school one day and the opening of school the next day.

“The community has done an awesome job of keeping donations coming,” Deierling said. “The Tulalip Tribes have been our biggest donors since our current building was built.”

Donations may be made out to Marysville Community Food Bank and sent to P.O. Box 917, Marysville, WA 98270. If you would like to designate your funds specifically for “Food For Thought,” please write in the memo line of your check the program you wish to support. Donations may also be made online at http://marysvillefoodbank.org via PayPal.