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For many years, every Monday morning at 5 am Dr. Charlie DeWilde of Liberty Bay Chiropractic Massage & Laser Center starts his week off with a very practical expression of his commitment to North Kitsap Fishline. He picks up produce items from Central Market, destined to be life-giving provisions for the client families who come to Fishline. Quietly, consistently, Dr. DeWilde has been a member of our “unsung heroes” team, those drivers who do one of the most important jobs in the house with the least amount of recognition. He has even been highlighted as one of our featured volunteers.

Pictured are many (but not all!) of the volunteers and staff who participated in the Fish Bucks design and implementation.

The 2013 Food Lifeline Award for Excellence in Client Services, was given to us for our innovation of the Fish Bucks front market distribution system implemented last year. This award selection was made from many entries throughout Western Washington and included a financial award of $1,000.


“Food Lifeline is happy to recognize North Kitsap Fishline Food Bank & Emergency Services,” said Linda Nageotte, President & CEO of Food Lifeline. “Their approaches to meeting client needs are exemplary. In addition we truly value how they’ve made services more accessible to hungry people in the Poulsbo area.”

Ours was a project months in the making, pulling in the help from volunteers, clients, staff and consultation from other food banks. The design helped create a fair distribution of food items while helping us calibrate so there is an even flow of food that avoids shortages or overages. It has also created a grocery-store like experience appreciated by our clients.

As the weather gets nicer, many groups and businesses hold food drives during this time of the year! It’s always a good time to support NK Fishline, but during the spring — it’s especially fun to get out, enjoy the sunshine, and do some good in the community.  

If you plan to hold a food drive, let us know!! We would love to add you to our events and food drive calendar and help promote your event on our Facebook page.  

Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions:  

What items are most needed by Fishline?

Canned goods, boxed meals, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce are all popular and needed provisions for our clients. Click here to visit our Facebook page and see a list of our most needed items.  

But we also accept fresh fruits and vegetables, so if you have an abundance of zucchini or apples from your garden, bring them to us – we’d love to offer them to our clients.

If you would like a bookmark-sized list you can hand out to neighbors in preparation for the food drive, email [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.

What items cannot be accepted by Fishline?

We are not allowed to accept anything that has been opened. As well, we cannot take home-made items. But if food items are recently expired, we still may be able to accept and distribute them depending on the type of food, so go ahead and include them and we’ll dispose of them if they can’t be used.

Should we let Fishline know of the drive before it happens?

This is not a requirement, but YES, it would be awesome to know! We are always glad to know of these events in advance, because we want to collaborate with you in assuring its success. 

Here are some of the ways we can help:

• Assist you in planning based on our experience over the years 
• Provide printed materials for your use, including our logo, banners and signs
• Advertise your event on our web site, social media, and events calendar
• Provide barrels for your use 
• Arrange pickup of the food if you can’t deliver it.

Often, food drives are meant to encourage general donations of non-perishables. But don’t feel limited by this—you can try different ways of gathering donations that help specific groups of people. 

Here are a few examples: 

• Hold a drive to collect items needed for our Food for Thought program (click here for shopping list of  Food for Thought items) 
• Pet food/treats drive 
• Packs of individually wrapped items that can be distributed to homeless clients. 
• Toiletries and other essentials needed for families living in shelters.

Do you have gently used camping gear that you are no longer using? Are you updating your old gear to buy new gear?  We are in need of tents, sleeping bags, and any other camping gear that you can provide! We have many homeless in our area that depend on these items to stay warm and sleep well.  Please contact Shannon, with Fishline’s Housing Solutions, if you have any of these items available!

Peanut butter is an easy and delicious way to add protein to your diet.  For those who are homeless or children in need, it is also a very convenient meal option. 

When a local resident comes to Fishline for help, it is often after many months of worry. Like perhaps we might be if we faced hard times, the strong, self-reliant part of our nature insists that we can handle our troubles. It can be embarrassing to admit we can’t handle them alone.

But some life situations are so persistent, so hard to resolve that we reach an impasse. That’s when it takes all the courage one can muster to travel up Third Avenue and enter a world you never thought you would. But it is then that you realize that the hardest part is walking through the door – it becomes so much easier after that. Fishline professionals and volunteers are highly skilled in welcoming troubled visitors with caring and non-judgmental hearts.

We recognize the fragile nature of these first-time visitors, and we treat them with the respect and admiration they are due. We listen, we encourage and then we go about building a plan. Stabilization includes food, housing and other essentials, so we start there. This sometimes is enough until something changes in the difficult situation and things improve. A job comes through or a potential roommate is found. Or health gets better and work hours increase. When life gets back on course, these grateful neighbors often turn out to be the donors of the future.

This is the best-case outcome and the reason why Fishline is here. But there are some of our clients who, for various reasons, are not recovering from their crisis quickly. Perhaps the work they were doing is no longer available, requiring a career reorientation or retraining. Maybe they are working but have not learned to budget, and their money often doesn’t make it to the end of the month. Perhaps depression and discouragement have taken hold, and confidence in working toward a better future is lost. These are scenarios that don’t bode well for self-sufficiency unless they are addressed with a more systemic approach.

Because we have relationships with folks in a way not shared by many in our community, it affords us an opportunity to bring about real and lasting change in a direction of personal prosperity. So we are hoping to offer education and counseling needed to break the cycle of poverty. We want to provide seminars on topics such as budgeting, tips on downsizing, job location and nutrition. We’ll work with our community partners to gather their expertise and wisdom and make it available for our clients. Fishline has relationships with mental health professionals and family counselors, and we wish to further cultivate these options for our clients.

By taking our services in this direction, we offer the “hand-up” approach that helps our clients find the tools they need to contribute to our community and gain the self respect that comes as a result. We all deserve a chance to find our greatness.

Reach us at [email protected] to learn more about this opportunity to teach or learn.