Correction: An earlier version of this article misreported that The Market customers are required to provide proof of address, proof of income, or identification information. The Market requires none of this information. The article has been updated.

Food access for rural communities around the Plateau is expected to improve by the end of the year.

The Market — a self-styled “food access solution” — plans to install five new refrigerated food storage lockers in Bonney Lake, Orting, Carbonado, and Wilkeson by the end of the year; one in Enumclaw could be coming later in the future.

These lockers will allow residents to order food from the nonprofit (located between Buckley and Bonney Lake), have the food delivered to a specified locker, and pick up the order at their leisure.

This project is made possible in part by Rep. Kim Schrier (D-8), who helped secure a $2 million grant for The Market earlier this year.

Schrier visited The Market on Aug. 4 to not only check out the food locker it has on-site but also to announce newly-proposed legislation. Called the STORE Act (The Supporting Transportation and Refrigeration Expansion Act of 2023), the legislation would increase funding for programs that connect low-income Americans with food from local farmers, if approved by Congress.

WHAT IS THE MARKET?

Formerly known as the Bonney Lake Food Bank, CEO Stacey Crnich and her team have been working hard over the last several years to transform what it means to be a solution for the growing number of Americans who experience food insecurity; a 2023 University of Washington and Western State University study shows that

In short, don’t call it a “food bank”.

At its inception, The Market resembled a grocery store, where customers simply grabbed a basket or cart and shop for food — without needing to pay for it, of course.

In exchange, customers were asked to self-declare their income level, but not proof of address, proof of income, or identification information is required.

“It’s beautiful, and dignified. It has the most healthy, gorgeous food, and I am so grateful to Stacey and to everybody who works here and volunteers for making this happen,” Shrier said. “I go to food banks everywhere in the 8th District… they’ve all heard of Stacey. They’re all emulating what she’s doing, because they want to provide this kind of dignified experience to customers who just need a little help making ends meet.”

That was in 2020. Since then, The Market might not have grown in size (square foot-wise), but the number shoppers and the partners that help provide them with fresh, healthy, and locally-sourced food, has greatly increased.

Three years ago, roughly 80 families shopped at The Market on an average day — this has increased to between 180 to 200 families daily, Crnich said.

That’s about “4,500 to 5,000 individuals each week,” she continued.

Companies that have partnered with The Market to serve this expanded population include big box stores that give The Market their overflow products, but it’s the local farmers that Crnich always seems excited about.

Thanks to various grants, The Market is able to buy produce and products from Four Elements Farm, Mom’s Microgarden, Sidhu Farms, Bright Ide Acres, Filbert Acres Farm, DeGeode Farms, Markario’s Acres, and Ziemke’s Farm at market price, rather than what farmers usually get when they sell to grocers.

In her experience, local farmers get “nickled and dimed, and what we’re paying in the grocery store is completely unrelated to what farmer’s are making,” Shrier says. “Having a direct relationship between the federal government and a local farm, that’s better for farmers.”

All of these partners helps The Market achieve two of its biggest goals. The first, obviously, is supplying locals with fresh, healthy food; the other is supplying locals with local food.

“There are people that are living right next door to farms where they can never afford the product that is being produced in their own community,” Crnich said, not only in regard to food access but food waste, an issue that she hopes The Market will be able to better tackle in the future.

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, a 2020-2021 study shows more than 446,000 tons of edible food was simply trashed; nationally, between 30 and 40% of all food is wasted, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to World Population Review, almost 8% of Washington families experience food insecurity, and the state ranks 37th in food access — despite the fact that Washington is the sixth richest state in the country.

Photo By Joshua Solorzano Kim Schrier and Stacy Crnich socializing at The Market in Buckley.

EXPANDED LOCKER PROGRAM

The Courier-Herald reported that Schrier secured the $2 million grant for The Market late last year, but the money wasn’t in Crnich’s pockets, so to speak, until recently.

While $1 million will be used to start The Market’s own farm — details to be announced later — the remaining grant funds are being used to install five new food lockers around east Pierce County and support the infrastructure that will keep them full of food.

According to Crnich, the locker itself serves up to 60 families a day; she said that one locker alone serves “outperforms 95% of all of the food banks in Pierce County.”

With the new lockers — located at the Wilkeson fire station, the Carbonado post office, the Orting Recovery Center, the Bonney Lake library, and the Bonney Lake High School — The Market hopes to quintuple the number of families that use the lockers by the end of the year.

BLHS Principal Anthony Clarke said he’s looking forward to the food locker coming to the school, citing it as a benefit for many families.

“It takes away the stigma around people’s need for food and takes away logistics issues for people getting to that food they need to keep going,” Clarke said. “The way it helps our school is that Bonney Lake High School is probably around 40% free or reduced lunch, but that’s just the people who filled out the paperwork, so probably 50% or more of our students are on free or reduced lunch. So they need access to this stuff.”

One of the positives of the locker’s refrigeration Clarke said, is the nutrients students can get from fresh food. He said often, people in poverty don’t have access to healthy food, but Crnich has changed that through her work with local farmers.

Another positive of the food locker at the high school Clarke cited is its discreetness. He said sometimes people don’t want to be open about their financial needs, which he can relate to.

“… So we try to take away the stigma, so families, even though we’re prideful at times, we need help,” Clarke said. “There’s been times when I’ve used places like the food bank when I was growing up and as an adult. So it happens, and it’s there for them.”

To order food and pick it up at a locker, email The Market at lockers@bonneylakefoodbank.org.