Federal Way garbage haulers collecting food bank donations

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Dolores Proffitt has never stood in a food-bank line. But she knowslife can change, particularly when times are tough.
So when she discovered a flier taped to her garbage can last week,asking for help, she and her husband, Clinton, went shopping andbought two bags of food to donate to the Federal Way community foodbank
"There are so many needy people around," she said, "and peopleoften forget about those who are less fortunate."
This week, in an unusual approach, the same folks who collectgarbage are also scooping up food donations along their routes— all for the Multi-Service Center's food bank.
Waste Management's garbage haulers in steel-toed shoes and heavywork gloves are doing double duty. They went door to door last weekwith the fliers asking residents to donate nonperishable fooditems.
"This is the first time this has been done on this scale," saidTricia Schug, a manager at the Multi-Service Center. "We're hopingto fill the food bank."
Proffitt, a retired grandmother, was waiting when WasteManagement's truck drove through her Century Palisades neighborhoodthis week. She handed the driver the bags and a note thanking WasteManagement for remembering the needy.
It's been a caravan of caring this week, the first time WasteManagement has partnered with the Multi-Service Center to helprestock its bins. The event happens to coincide with Saturday's16th annual Mayors' Day of Concern for the Hungry, where groceriesthroughout King County will provide drop-off bins for donated foodthat will go to local food banks.
Waste Management, which contracts with Federal Way to collectgarbage for some 17,000 customers, is heeding Mayor Jack Dovey'scall to extend the food-collection drive beyond a single day.
Waste Management representative Laura Moser sold her bosses on theidea. The drive is modeled after the annual springtime "Help StampOut Hunger" food drive by area mail carriers and their union, theNational Association of Letter Carriers.
"We already had all the resources," Moser said. "It was just amatter of putting them out on the street."
Waste Management is using three company vehicles for daily foodpickups.
In the past six months, contributions to the food bank are at theirlowest, and demand for food at its highest in the past decade,Schug said.
The food bank gives food to about 2,500 clients a month; nearlyhalf are under age 18. Staffers say they see from 20 to 30 newpeople every day the food bank is open — Mondays, Wednesdaysand Fridays.
"This is a great thing that Waste Management is doing for the foodbank because the need we're seeing is tremendous," said DiniDuclos, head of the Multi-Service Center, which runs Federal Way'sonly food bank out of a small warehouse on South 336th Street.
The center also runs a clothing bank at the warehouse, and overseeshundreds of units of housing for the low-income and elderly inSouth King County, and offers educational training, and employmentand energy assistance.
At other food banks across the county, donations also are downbecause of the economy, while requests for help are up, said BrianAnderson, operations director for the Emergency Feeding Program ofSeattle & King County, the agency that coordinates the Mayors'Day of Concern food drive.
In February, the Emergency Feeding Program delivered 1,324 bags offood — a total of 20,740 pounds — to more than 100feeding programs. By July, 2,319 bags of food — 37,627 pounds— were delivered.
Anderson fears the demand this fall, in the face of an increasinglysour economy, "will only accelerate into a situation where foodbanks across the county will be unable to feed those reaching outfor help."
Charles E. Brown: 206-464-2206 or cbrown@seattletimes.com