It started early on Wednesday, Dec 20th, as six members of our marketing and purchasing team met to assemble the sandwich factory, making more than 200 ham and turkey sandwiches. Along with sandwiches, bottles of water and hygienic items, we purchased over one hundred socks and gloves to distribute along with bins of warm clothing essentials we had collected at our stores, from customer donations.

Helping the homeless in Auburn and Renton. — To assist in our local community, members of the Evergreen Market assembled over 200 sandwiches for those in need living in Auburn and Renton.

Our first stop was at Auburn’s Ray of Hope, a recent addition to help combat community homelessness with resources and support. Ray of Hope was opened with space donation from Valley Cities at 2536 I St. NE, Auburn, WA. Daily power is supplied by Puget Sound Energy, while staff and volunteers from Auburn’s Food Bank provide help and assistance. It will remain open for a year and a half until the city finds a more everlasting solution for permanent housing for homeless living in Auburn.

Those present on Wednesday afternoon at Ray of Hope were grateful for the food and clothes donations, wishing us a Merry Christmas with thank you’s, big smiles and plenty of gratitude. This was a feel-good moment, but also presented the harsh burn of reality, of being comfortable this season while so many are without homes, families or work. Our team was happy to do what we could to make these people feel part of our community, with warm clothes and nourishing food.

Helping feed our community — Donations of ham and turkey sandwiches, apples and bottles of water.

Our next stop was to the Kiwanis Clothes Bank in Renton, just across the street from our original Renton store on Rainer Ave, near Renton Municipal Airport. Kiwanis Clothes Bank is open Monday-Thursday 1-5pm, and provides free clothing for those with a referral for need. This is like a clothing store, that has a variety of options for free, to those who seek their services. Once again, the people present at Kiwanis Clothes Bank thanked us for the donations and smiled from the heart, also wishing us a Merry Christmas.

We want to thank our customers for providing bags of warm essentials to donate to these local services. We will continue collecting Food Donations of non-perishables through December 30th for Northwest Harvest. Feel free to stop in during our business hours of 8-11 M-Sat, and 9-9 Sunday to make a donation.