Volume VII, No. 1 | February ‍2025 ‍ ‍

‍THE WALK & KNOCKER

‍A quarterly newsletter for the Walk & Knock Family

250,000 Lbs - What does it mean?

According to the Clark County Food Bank: 

• 250,000 pounds of food is valued at $455,000
• 250,000 pounds of food equals 208,333 meals
• $20,000 buys about 80,000 meals
• Through food and financial donations, we raised enough to provide 288,333 meals. 

That’s enough to provide 65 families of four three meals a day for a year.

Pretty sweet, right? Except, according to the Food Bank, approximately 125,000 are hunger insecure in our county.  We are doing great work, but there remains great need.

Partners In The News!

Check out the great Columbian article on the expansion of the downtown Vancouver FISH pantry, run by our own former Board member and Food Bank Warehouse manager James Fitzgerald.  Their $1 million expansion doubled the size of the warehouse and added 50% to the pantry. FISH provides over 2 million pounds of food a year!

Where are our Volunteers? (we need your help)

Not that many years ago Walk and Knock had close to 4,000 volunteers helping us on Drive Day picking up food.  This year we had just under 2,000 volunteers helping us cover more area than we have ever been asked to cover before.  While we love the volutneer help that we get, we need more help.  Scouts, Church Groups, Youth Groups, School Clubs, families etc, all have helped and all are great.  Where have all our volutneers gone and how can we find new ones?  

In order for Walk and Knock to remain the tremendous success we have come to expect it to be, we need help.  If you have any ideas for ways for us to get more volunteers, please feel free to e-mail them to me - president@walkandknock.org OR better yet feel free to join us at any Board Meeting.  We typically meet on the 2nd Monday of every month at 6:30 PM at the Clark County Food Bank.  Our meetings are open to the public and all are welcome. 

Your 24/25 Board of Directors - Come Join Us!

‍This year has marked milestone years for several of our current Board Members and we will be seeing some of our Board Members who are instrumental to the success of our drive retire.  Due to that we will need to replace some board positions with new people this year.  If you have an interest in making Walk and Knock run and being a part of our leadership, please consider joining us.  Our next Meeting is on Monday February 10th at 6:30 PM at the Clark County Food Bank.  Please consider joining us and learning more.  

Our current 24/25 Board:

President – Justin Wood

First VP – Janet Elliott

Second VP – Becky Writt

Third VP – Barbara Yasson

Treasurer – Steve Staudinger

Secretary – Tammy Mackey

Past President – Tom Knappenberger

Trustee – Joe Pauletto

Trustee – Jeff Fish

Trustee – Bill Lundin

Trustee -- Kavita Ros

Trustee – Reese Carpenter

Also featuring:

Kay Hust, Barrel Coordinator

Donate to Walk & Knock

All money collected goes directly to the Clark County Food Bank to help those in need.

Mail checks to:
PO Box 353, Vancouver WA 98666, payable to Interservice Walk & Knock

Donate online:
Pay with credit card via Paypal, even if you don't have a Paypal account

Note from the President 

I was proud to return to Walk and Knock for my 2nd stint as the Predsident.  In all I have served on the Walk and Knock Board for the past 15 years and in some capacity with Walk and Knock for over 30 years.   While I continue to feel a passion for the importance of what Walk and Knock means to the community, I also know that Walk and Knock needs new ideas and new involvement on our Board.  We are facing challenges as we move beyond our 40th year and into the future.  We need to find new people to join our Board and drive day leadership (sector coordiantors & area captains).  We have many people who have spent many years as a part of our organization and some of them are ready to retire.  

If you have a passion for helping the Community and an interest in Walk and Knock please consider getting more involved.  I am happy to talk to anyone who would like to learn more about ways you can help. 

As always feel free to drop me a message anytime - president@walkandknock.org 

Thanks for all you do, 

Justin Wood, President 

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