Neighborhood Alliance Seeks Food Drive Volunteers

The Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods and its indefatigable coordinator Norm Storme are once again reaching out to Kirkland’s neighborhood associations and anyone else who can help to gather donations to feed the hungry.

Volunteers will be collecting donations of money and non-perishable food items outside 10 Kirkland grocery stores on Sept. 24 and Oct. 8. All the donations will go to the Kirkland office of and its food bank.

In January, the Kirkland City Council presented Storme a certificate of appreciation for his work in last year’s food drive, part of the Eastside Month of Concern for the Hungry “Share What You Can” campaign.

Seven Eastside communities -- Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Mercer Island, North Bend, Redmond and Sammamish -- collaborated to collect donations local food banks and the Emergency Feeding Program. Donations from Kirkland residents constituted 18 percent of the $11,000 collected from the seven cities.

“You get back what you give,” explains the affable Storme, a retired state Department of Transportation engineer. “I just had a real good time, so they volunteered me again this year.”

Volunteers are needed at various collection sites in Kirkland, with three shifts on each of the two days: 9:45 a.m.-noon, 11:45 a.m.-2:00 p.m. and 1:45 p.m.-4:15 p.m.

If you can help, select a grocery store from the list below, click on the link and select the shift(s) you want to cover.

• Metropolitan Market, 10611 NE 68th St.

• PCC, 10718 NE 68th St.

• Juanita Albertsons, 9826 NE 132nd St.

• Red Apple Market, 6625 132nd Ave NE.

• Fred Meyer, 12221 120th Ave NE.

• QFC: 211 Parkplace Center, 11224 NE 124th St. (Totem Lake), and 11224 NE 124th St. (Finn Hill).

• Safeway: 12519 NE 85th St. (Rose Hill), 10020 NE 137th St. (Juanita) and 14444 124th Ave NE (Kingsgate).

For more information, contact Kari Page, the city’s neighborhood outreach coordinator, at 425-587-3011; Kpage@kirklandwa.gov.