Photo: "A forklift unloads tons of produce at Farmer Frog in Woodinville, part of the EastWest Food Rescue program. The van at left arrived to pick up 45 of the 2,000 boxes of food." Ken Lambert | The Seattle Times
"It started with a simple message on Facebook on April 29. George Ahearn had heard about farmers in Washington State who were giving away potatoes and onions and wanted to know if someone had a truck he could borrow to haul the discarded crops to western Washington food banks. The response was immediate and dramatic. A convoy of four trucks, including two with trailers, made the trip east, helping to provide quite a bounty for local food banks. "We brought back 9.36 tons, when my original goal was 2,000 pounds (one ton)," Ahearn said. The effort didn't end there. "EastWest Food Rescue is now a registered nonprofit organization that has delivered more than 2.4 million pounds of crops to more than 160 food banks. Not only is it helping with food security, but the organization is paying the farmers, who saw the market for some of their crops vanish during the coronavirus pandemic." The all-volunteer effort coordinates about 500 people -- half who volunteer and half who are donors.
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