Inland NW food banks running short on supplies
It’s the time of year when food banks are making spirits bright for people who are struggling. But the food providers themselves have said they are struggling.
Eric Williams at Second Harvest in Spokane said its shelves are about half full. He cited several causes, including food companies making less of the shelf stable foods that food banks prefer. He said the producers are trying to satisfy the public demand for more food with fresh ingredients and shorter shelf lives.
Under normal conditions, Williams said, Second Harvest’s warehouses in Spokane and Pasco hold about 2.5 million pounds of food. Right now, it’s about half that.
“If you just walk through our warehouse, right now, unfortunately, you’ll see lots of empty racks,” Williams told SPR News. “And we’re just pedaling as fast as we can to get food back into those racks so we can distribute it out to folks who are in need.”
Williams said 90% of the food Second Harvest distributes is donated. But the organization may be forced into purchasing more food to meet its needs.
Food pantries across the country are in the same situation, Williams added, and it’s not a holiday-related problem.
Inslee looks back on environmental legacy
In his dozen years in office, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made policies designed to fight climate change a key element of his legacy. Critics contend the measures to reduce greenhouse gases make fuel and food prices higher, and may not help battle climate change as much as Inslee hopes.
In an interview with TVW, Inslee said those laws are a critical part of his legacy because of the significance of climate change – something that will be important to the Washingtonians of the future.
“If you think in the long scope of history, I do believe that's how my generation of leaders will be judged,” Inslee said. “I think if you look back, if historians look back 50 years from now or, or a century from now, they'll think this was the most consequential thing that people did with long-term results.”
The governor also said he thinks the state can achieve its goals, and he predicted that if it doesn’t, Washington will look drastically different in the future.
“You’re not going to have a healthy forest, you’re not going to have salmon in the rivers, you’re not going to have snow in the mountains, you’re not going to have skiing at Snoqualmie Pass, you’re not going to have irrigated agriculture that is successful, your kids won’t be able to go to school in August and breathe because of the forest fire smoke,” Inslee said on Inside Olympia.
In a separate conversation with reporters late last week, Inslee pointed out that Washington voters chose to keep the Climate Commitment Act, rejecting a Republican-led effort to repeal the law.
The act sets Washington on a path to reduce its carbon emissions 95% by the year 2050.
Idaho Democratic chair looks to party’s future
It’s a wide-open race for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, whose job is focused on getting the party’s candidates elected across the country.
Potential candidates range from moderates to liberals. But Idaho state Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea said where they land on the ideological spectrum doesn’t matter.
She told Boise State Public Radio the next DNC chair needs to be able to unify the coalitions making up the party.
“To come together across our minor policy disagreements we might hold to advance the agenda of electing more Democrats so that we can implement more of these policies that lift up working families,” she said.
Aside from managerial skills, Necochea said the next chair should also be able to effectively talk to voters who actively tune out the news and tend to vote Republican.
She and other party officials will elect the new DNC chairperson February 1.
WSU Christmas tree expert set to retire
Washington State University plant pathologist Gary Chastagner is known as “Doctor Christmas Tree” across the U.S. He has helped Northwest Christmas tree growers for more than forty years.
But that will end next spring, when he retires. And Chastagner says WSU is going to do its best to find someone else to help take care of the trees.
“They’ve created an endowment to try and raise funds to help support Christmas tree and nursery and landscape research activities and help encourage WSU to refill my position,” he said.
Christmas tree production is big business in the Pacific Northwest: Washington is fourth in the country, with approximately four hundred Christmas tree farms statewide.
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Reporting was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Brandon Hollingsworth, James Dawson and Lauren Paterson.