Volunteers help beautify Kent's Northwest Harvest

A large work party came to embrace and spruce up Northwest Harvest.

About 300 volunteers – and their families – from Comcast took advantage of a sun-splashed Saturday to help beautify inside and outside of Kent's main food distribution center, 22220 68th Ave. S.

"The place looks beautiful," said Deborah Squires, community engagement director for Northwest Harvest. "We couldn't do it without them. Not only did they bring the beauty bark and the paint, they brought the muscle."

The effort was part of Comcast Cares Day, one of the nation's largest single days of service by a corporation, with more than 2,200 volunteers around the state working on a dozen projects.

During their visit last Saturday, volunteers in Comcast's service project packaged 19,000 meals for distribution throughout Washington, Squires said.

In all, volunteers generously gave an estimated $24,000 of free labor.

Comcast brought along soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord to chip in.

Volunteers cleaned the warehouse, swept and wiped down food storage racks. They painted the interior of the conference room and warehouse offices. Teams performed landscape duty, pulling weeds, raking flower beds, spreading bark and picking up debris.

They finished the morning by conducting a youth art project, making thank you cards and poster boards.

Squires appreciates the assist, especially now, with Northwest Harvest and supporting outlets faced with limited staffing and high demand for food.

Northwest Harvest and its food bank networks produce 1.6 million meals a month for the hungry throughout the state.

To learn more, visit www.northwestharvest.org.

Contact Kent Reporter Regional Editor Mark Klaas at mklaas@kentreporter.com or 253-872-6600, ext. 27-5050.

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