Our Story

The Food Project was started in 2009 in Ashland, Oregon by a small group of residents who wanted to make it easy for people to donate food to local food banks. The idea was brought to Gig Harbor by Aleece Townsend and along with web developer Jim Butchart built on that idea. They realized that many of their neighbors wanted to help fight hunger in their community, but for one reason or another, never get around to it. So they adopted a simple, door-to-door food collection system to enable people to pitch in.

They had two goals:

  1. To provide a regular supply of food to hungry neighbors
  2. To create new neighborhood connections and strengthen the community

The first pick-up day of the project was March 11, 2023 and netted 1,971 pounds of donated food. It’s an amazing success story…but there’s still plenty of need in our area, and plenty of room for the Gig Harbor Food Project to grow. So join us! Don’t wait for a neighbor to knock on your door. Get in touch and let us know you want to share food. We’ll bring you a green bag, and get you started right away!