Marysville soiree bolsters newly expanded food bank

Steve Fulton and his office staff usually celebrate the season with dinner at a nice restaurant. This year, that holiday tradition didn’t seem right.

So many people are jobless, or worried about losing a job. So many are seeing retirement savings shrink. So many have little to celebrate.

Fulton sees the growing need through his involvement with the Marysville Rotary Club, which helps support the Marysville Food Bank. A $100,000 donation from the Rotary club went a long way toward completing the food bank’s new home, a 5,600-square-foot building soon to open on 88th Street NE in Marysville.

As he started planning his office party, the light bulb went on in Fulton’s head. An insurance agent with a State Farm office near Smokey Point, Fulton decided to combine celebration with donation.

With help from the Rotary and its many friends, Marysville’s new food bank will host a fancy gala before it ever opens to serve the hungry. The Christmas gala, with an hors d’oeuvres buffet and music by the Marysville-Pilchuck High School choir, is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 16 in the new food bank building behind St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The suggested minimum donation is $25 per person, with all proceeds going to the food bank.

That’s where Fulton and his co-workers plan to party this year.

“We’re hoping to fill 24 tables with 10 people each,” said Carol Biegler, president of Soroptimists International of Marysville. Biegler was at the new food bank Wednesday for a lunchtime meeting of the Marysville Rotary.

The club normally meets at the Best Western-Tulalip Inn, but members and guests gathered at the new food bank building, which isn’t yet furnished with tables and equipment used to distribute food to more than 1,000 families each month.

Soroptimist Club members are decorating trees for the gala, and each tree will later be donated to a family through the Operation Marysville Community Christmas charity. Moveable Feast Catering, a Marysville business, will donate all the food for the Dec. 16 party.

Speaking to the Rotary on Wednesday, Marysville Food Bank board president Mike Mulligan said, “Five years ago when we started this process, the ball rolled slowly. And the bills don’t stop coming.” The Rotary donated $1,250 to the food bank at Wednesday’s meeting, and the Soroptimists donated $1,000.

Mulligan’s mother, Jo Ann Mulligan, founded the food bank more than 30 years ago at St. Mary’s Church. It later became part of the Snohomish County Food Bank Coalition, and since 1997 has been housed in a 3,400-square-foot building near the Marysville YMCA. The new $1 million building will is expected to open the first week of January, Mike Mulligan said.

“Last Tuesday before Thanksgiving, if you drove by the food bank you saw about 100 people in line in the rain,” said Joyce Zeigen, Marysville Food Bank director. Speaking at the Rotary lunch, Zeigen said the new building has much more room inside to handle crowds on distribution days.

At the new facility, people will also have more opportunities to choose foods they want, Zeigen said. It’s a change that will treat people more humanely, and will also cut down on waste, she said.

As I shopped for Thanksgiving, I wasn’t thinking about people lined up in the rain for food. It’s hard to think of it now, or to think a larger food bank is needed. But it is needed.

A fancy gala at a food bank? This year, what could be more fitting?

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

A food bank gala

A Christmas fundraising gala is scheduled for 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 16 at the new Marysville Food Bank building, 4200 88th St. NE, behind St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The gala includes appetizers, a performance by the Marysvillle-Pilchuck High School choir and food bank tours. Tables for up to 10 may be reserved; individuals and groups of any size are welcome.

Suggested minimum donation is $25 per person. All proceeds will benefit the food bank, which is moving in January. Reservations: 360-653-4557.