Lease ends in December
Despite a cloud of uncertainty facing the La Conner Sunrise Food Bank, there are rays of hope that the local pantry can find a new site before its lease at the Garfield Masonic Lodge Building expires at the end of the year.
“We have a couple leads and there are a lot of folks who have come forward with ideas,” said food bank director Arin Magill. “We’re not picky. We can definitely make things work.”
“We plan on serving through the holidays.”
Arin Magill
Even if that means operating from a temporary space until a permanent spot is secured.
“We’re coming up on the holidays now and we plan on serving through the holidays,” Magill said. “That’s the message we want to get out.”
Magill spoke as she and the food bank’s corps of volunteers busily prepared for their Oct. 14 distribution at Third and Benton on the hill. La Conner’s food bank serves about 130 households — an estimated 400 people — each week.
Magill said widespread support for the food bank, a valued resource here since 2010, allows her to maintain a glass half-filled outlook. Several interested parties have reached out with offers to help, she said.
“Our neighboring farmers have said they would let us relocate there and have offered to build something for us to work out of, but we’re finding issues with that because of the zoning (on farmland),” she said. “We’re still aggressively seeking a new space.”
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
