Cars lined up for the Jan. 17 giveaway that served a total of 886 families.
With an annual budget of $11.8 million a year, over the last five years the Making a Difference Foundation (MADF) has invested $60 million into the community. MADF founder and CEO Ahndrea Blue said that just since COVID-19, $46 million has been invested – $39 million in food, $3.3 million in housing, 100-plus scholarships given, and more than 46,800,000 meals served. Last month, Eloise’s Cooking Pot, a MADF program, was at 70,000-plus people served.
“I don’t think people can even begin to know the pressure that COVID-19 put on our organization. Eloise’s was never designed to be this big. That was never our intent, but COVID-19 put the pressure on it and now it’s grown into what it is, and we don’t plan on going backward,” Blue said.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when Gov. Inslee issued his stay-at-home order, food providers were deemed “essential businesses” and allowed to remain open and operational. For food banks, it was good news but tempered with a quandary over how to safely serve their clients, many of whom with medical conditions that made them particularly vulnerable to catching the disease. That some food banks are rather small in square footage meant that social distancing would be difficult if not impossible, and masks would provide the only known protection against what was feared as a highly communicable illness.
In Tacoma, and at food banks across the country, the idea of a drive-thru service took hold and this was the case at Eloise’s Cooking Pot. From its location on East McKinley Avenue, cars with folks in need from all walks of life would line up further than the eye could see.
“It truly has become a mechanism for people to receive their food,” said Blue. “I was shocked at the number of people in wheelchairs driving through, and people who can’t stand… We just don’t think about these things.”
It quickly got to the point that the need outdistanced the facility. Due to the high community need during COVID-19, the city of Tacoma had issued Blue a special event permit for street use during this time when all the rules were waived because of COVID-19. However, that permit expired and Blue was at her wit’s end trying to figure out what to do. She knew the traffic congestion was an obvious issue just as she knew she couldn’t up and end the drive-thru and leave people hanging.
“If we put in a rule that says we’re not serving anybody more than this, it would be huge. If we were to say to the community that the line ends here and we’re not serving you, it would have a huge impact,” Blue said. “We’re responding to a situation, to what’s happening. It was never our intention to outgrow our community and be this large. We see a problem and we try to solve it.”
At this point, all that Blue could do was to take her case to the city and ask for help.
“They said that while we worked it out, they would extend the permit until the end of the year (2023) so there would be no service disruptions during the holidays. Then they came back in December and said they thought they had a viable option,” Blue explained.
That option was for Eloise’s Cooking Pot to relocate its drive-thru service to the Tacoma Dome. So, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, the very first Eloise’s drive-thru food giveaway at the Dome was on just as it was the following Wednesday. Since Wednesdays are the Dome’s least busy days of the week, the drive-thru happens on this day every week from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and there is nothing required of anyone to use the service. Just come as you are and get in line.
Tacoma Venues & Events director Adam Cook said the giveaways bring folks who may not have any other option for enough food.
Developing this novel use of the Dome’s parking lots required many heads to come together: staff at the city of Tacoma and the Tacoma Dome, City Manager Elizabeth Pauli and Mayor Victoria Woodards and their offices, Emergency Food Network and Northwest Harvest to provide the food, to name just some of the players.
Councilmember Catherine Ushka was pulling for Eloise’s as well, as the food bank is in the district she serves.
“I celebrate this outcome for our community, and I appreciate City staff and Eloise’s Cooking Pot’s persistence to find a solution for delivering food to the families who need it most,” Ushka said. “It is terrific that a win-win solution was found to provide a lower-impact essential service to our community. I am proud of the city and the McKinley community for supporting each other through the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborating to ensure a high quality of life throughout McKinley Hill.”
To say that Blue is elated over how it all turned out, and is equally as grateful, is an understatement.
“While we were working it out amongst ourselves, clients kept asking what’s going to happen and I told them I didn’t know but that I was praying that it works out,” Blue told the Tacoma Weekly, then she proceeded to sing the praises of the city and everyone who helped her and her clients when they needed it most.
“I’m going to tell you how amazing the city was. They problem solved it for me. They said, ‘Come down and check it out. We think we can host you in this lot right here.’ I literally cried.”
According to Blue’s numbers, the Jan. 17 drive-thru served 233 households with a total of 886 family members. These numbers are guaranteed to increase as word of the drive-thru spreads.
“We really moved up to the big time,” she laughed, “and our clients have been ecstatic. They say, ‘The city did this for us?’ They’re so thankful.”
Adam Cook is director of Tacoma Venues & Events overseeing operations at the Dome and all our city’s public assembly venues as well as the city’s special events permitting and right of way use department. Cook said the city had been working with Blue for about the past year.
“We recognize that the work she’s providing is a huge impact to our community and a very needed service,” Cook said. “What we saw in the first two runs were folks who may not be able to have that service anywhere else or have any other option. For her to be able to provide that and for us to, in some small way, help is just part of our broader mission of how we can support the community. The work she does is amazing.”
Since this new partnership between Eloise’s and the Dome is new territory, a definite timeline has not been put in place for how long it will continue but plans are to have the drive-thru operating for at least the rest of this year.
“The original intent was to see how these first few runs went and that it’s able to effectively operate. Now that it is, we’re looking through until at least the end of the year and seeing what the need is at that point,” Cook said.
The Dome staff provides some help at the drive-thrus but the bulk of the work is done by Eloise’s volunteer staff. According to Blue it is quite labor intensive, but her volunteers are truly rock stars at what they do and Blue said she can’t thank them enough. Anyone in the community who would like to help out is warmly invited to do so, and food donations are accepted as well to give out to drive-thru clients. The only items not accepted are foods past their expiration dates.
For those who would like to offer financial support, this is easily done at themadf.org/donate. There you can offer a one-time donation or set up a recurring give and choose any amount you’d like as every penny counts.
Stay informed of Eloise’s food giveaways on their Facebook page.
