House Appropriations Committee Advances New Federal Funding for Port Angeles Food Bank’s Nourish to Flourish Expansion
Kilmer Led Effort to Ensure Appropriations Committee Approved $900,000 for Port Angeles Food Bank Expansion
Washington, DC – This week, the House Appropriations Committee advanced critical funding that has been championed by U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer to support the Port Angeles Food Bank’s Nourish to Flourish expansion. The House fiscal year 2022 agriculture appropriations bill, advanced by the Committee this week, included $900,000 in federal funding for the expansion project, which is intended to allow the Port Angeles Food Bank to finalize the purchase of the building in which they currently operate, ensuring a permanent location and consistent services for years to come.
“As someone who grew up in Port Angeles, I want to make sure all of the community’s residents have economic opportunity and can live with dignity. I know how important the Port Angeles Food Bank has been, and will continue to be, to ensuring folks in our region receive critical nutrition assistance when they need it most,” said Rep. Kilmer. “The new, expanded facility has been critical to helping the Food Bank deliver for folks during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a big deal that funding to help make this expansion permanent has cleared this important hurdle. I’ll keep pushing to help ensure the Food Bank has the support it needs to continue to serve our community.”
“It became apparent during the pandemic that we would have nowhere near enough storage space for the pantry staples finally coming to the north Olympic Peninsula, and immediate action was necessary as soon as we began turning truckloads of fresh food away. The availability of this building, which meets our dire needs of enough dry storage, but more importantly with the abundance of cold storage, is an incredible benefit to our entire community,” said Emily Dexter, Executive Director of the Port Angeles Food Bank.
In 2020, the Port Angeles Food Bank supported approximately 13 area food pantries with over 5,000 households on the Olympic Peninsula – distributing an average 250,000 pound of food per month, or 200,000 meals per month. The Port Angeles Food Bank expects this need to continue to grow in future years and has moved into a new space with expanded dry storage space, additional freezer space, and room to create an open area market where customers will be able to shop with equity and dignity.
Rep. Kilmer led the effort to secure funding for the project through the House Appropriations Committee’s Community Project Funding process.
The Community Project Funding request was supported by: State Rep. Mike Chapman, Clallam County Commissioners Randy Johnson & Mark Ozias, the City of Port Angeles, the Clallam County Sheriff's Office, Clallam County EDC, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Food Lifeline, the Sequim Food Bank, the Forks Community Food Bank, Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), the Port Angeles Salvation Army, the Port Angeles School District, the Port Angeles Boys & Girls Club, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, KONP, and Clallam Mosaic, among others.