Painful church closing leads to widespread welcome for a much-needed food bank

By Rachel Pritchett, communicator

SOUTH BEND, Wash. — It was heartbreaking for Laura Michaelson when Our Savior's Lutheran Church of Raymond closed in 2008.
The 64-year-old lifelong Pacific County resident had been baptized and married there. The church had been central in the lives of her children and grandchildren.
"It was extremely difficult," Michaelson said.
But a critically poor economy in Raymond brought on mostly by cuts in the timber-products industry left little choice.
Members of the struggling congregation went on to worship with First Lutheran Church in nearby South Bend.
Both were congregations of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
As painful as the closing was, it led to the formation of the only food bank in South Bend, where unemployment remains around 11.9 percent — about three points higher than the state and national averages — and where working families and seniors on fixed incomes struggle to make it to the end of the month. At the height of the recession, joblessness stood at 15.4 percent, according to the Washington Department of Employment Security.
Some of the proceeds from the sale of Our Savior's went to a food bank, at first opened in 2009 at First Lutheran. Just recently, the congregation that sits between peaceful Willapa Bay and the rolling Willapa Hills purchased land and a building near the church and moved its food bank there. About $15,000 was done in improvements, mostly for the installation of a wheelchair ramp.
A formal opening of the Legacy Community Outreach Food Bank was held in June. "Legacy" was made part of the name to remember Our Savior's, which had a strong food ministry.
"That's why we have the strange name," Michaelson said.
The food bank has more players involved than the First Lutheran congregation. Members from the community join First Lutheran members to sit on the board of the separate nonprofit. Michaelson is president. And while First members contribute mightily to the food bank, so does South Bend businesses and volunteers who know the great need here. The South Bend School District conducts regular drives for the food bank, as do the Boy Scouts.
Inside the food bank stand shelves full of cereals and soda, beans and chili. Closets are full of toilet paper and soda.
It's open from 2 to 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday, late enough so the working poor can stop by.
So far, the food bank is serving about 237 families a month, which translates to about 800 individuals. The number is growing in an area where about 18 percent of residents fall beneath the federal poverty line.
The Rev. Laurie Johnson of First Lutheran oversaw parishioners bring in bags of food to worship on June 26. Donations were heaped high around the altar.
Pastor Johnson's husband, Gary, is on the food bank board and performs a lot of the heavy hauling, including driving truck deliveries of food contributions from far away. He said it's different when a faith organization takes on the challenge of a food bank.
Sometimes the money might not be there right away, causing the nonprofit to step out in faith. But it always comes eventually.
"We are doing things on faith, and thing happen," Gary Johnson said.
"When you have God doing a food ministry, it is a lot," said Mary Ann Dirkes, treasurer of the food-bank board.
Gary Johnson also said that the food has changed the merged congregation forever into one where the "servant aspect" is tops.
Dirkes said some in the congregation used to think of food-bank users as lazy. But then they discovered visitors had hungry children. Volunteers learned to step back, not ask, and be less judgmental.
"We all make mistakes sometimes," Dirkes said.
"People are people; we are all God's people," Gary Johnson said.
Meanwhile, the former Our Savior's Lutheran Church of Raymond is about to start a second life as a senior center, just as a merger once so painful has resulted a new food bank in this green corner of the state where the need is so very compelling.

Pictured top to bottom:

The Rev. Laurie Johnson conducts services at First Lutheran on June 26.

Left to right, Mary Ann Dirkes, Laura Michaelson and Gary Johnson pose inside the food bank. All are on the food bank's nonprofit board and volunteer to help feed the hungry.

Bags are piled at worship at First Lutheran destined for the food bank.

The former Our Savior's Lutheran Church of Raymond is about to open as a senior center.