Plateau Outreach Ministry’s new food bank is open for service.

The local nonprofit celebrated its accomplishment with a ribbon cutting on Feb. 12, and despite the drizzly grey weather, spirits were high.

“We are ecstatic because this just gets to show the community and our families and clients the abundance of food that is available… during the hard times,” Executive Director Elisha Smith-Marshall said at the ceremony, thanking POM board members and volunteers, city and Enumclaw School District staff, and dozens of other supporters that packed the facility. “We could not do this without any of you.”

POM has been evolving quickly over the last several years. First, after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifted in late 2021, POM’s food bank on Marshall Avenue began operating like a grocery store, rather than a traditional food bank.

However, POM had to set up and take down the food bank every week, which was time-consuming for volunteers and staff.

And then POM and the Enumclaw Food Bank, which operated next to the local senior center, combined in March 2022 after the retirement of Lawton Case, who ran the other nonprofit for years.

Both food banks operated simultaneously since the merger, but now they will be under one roof at the POM Food Bank at the Calvary Presbyterian Church’s Education Building (1720 1/2 Wells Street, across the street from The Chalet Theatre) on Mondays from noon to 3 p.m., and Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

The former Cole Street food bank building will continue to be used for storage, and the former food bank space at POM will be used for other nonprofit services like office space and More Pennies From Heaven donation sorting.

For more information about the POM Food Bank, head to plateauoutreach.org.

Plateau Outreach Ministry’s new food bank is located at 1720 1/2 Wells Street in the Calvary Presbyterian Church Education Building. Pictured are various members of the community at a ribbon cutting and self-guided tour of the few establishment, which is replacing both the food banks at the POM building (Marshall Avenue) and the Enumclaw Food Bank (on Cole Street). Photo by Ray Miller-Still