Removing barriers = increasing food security for children and families

February 3, 2021

In December 2020, The ZONE partnered with Special Mobility Services, SNAP, CHAS, and 2nd Harvest to employ Community Health Workers (CHWs) to deliver Second Harvest food boxes on a weekly basis to ZONE families. Why food deliveries? Many families face barriers to accessing healthy foods on a regular basis not just because of lack of income, but because of lack of access to transportation, time conflicts with food bank or distribution hours, or families needing to quarantine in their homes because of COVID 19.

Through our partnership efforts, the ZONE was able to serve 20 families a week with a total of 180 household members. This partnership was part of a larger food distribution system funded by CARES dollars through Spokane County that served over 2,000 households and over 6,700 people in the month of December.

When surveying families served through Community Health Workers, we found that after one month of consistently receiving food deliveries, no family reported worrying about having enough to eat. Because this pilot program was funded for just one month with CARES dollars, The ZoNE and other members of the Spokane Food Security Coalition are trying to secure more funding to continue. Click here to watch the recent KXLY news story that talks about this critical food delivery program ending.

How can you help? The ZONE is committed to helping families thrive and secure access to healthy foods – which is why we continue to work with community partners and funders to develop sustainable solutions. We do need volunteers to deliver food boxes and fill in the gaps that our partners and Community Health Workers can’t always meet.

Posted in Previous Impacts, Uncategorized