Photo courtesy Care Moses Lake
Volunteers serving with Care Moses Lake received a 2024 Washington State Volunteer Service group award for the north central region of Washington. The volunteer group award is given to groups of people who serve on a specific project or shared an ongoing volunteer commitment.
Care Moses Lake is a non-profit based in Grant County. A group of a dozen volunteers with Care Moses Lake make and deliver 200 food sacks per week to people experiencing food insecurity and homelessness according to Michaelle Boetger, the organization's founder.
Care Moses Lake started in 2017 as an informal group of volunteers. Another non-profit organization had made a request for volunteers to make sack lunches twice a week for clients. Boetger recruited a few friends and family members to help. The pandemic of 2020 saw an increased need for food in the community, so Boetger and her Care Moses volunteers continued making the sandwiches, an endeavor they called "Care Sacks."
They expanded their Care Sacks to include distributing donations of hygiene products, sleeping bags, clothing and cold weather items. As their need in the community grew, Boetger and the original group of volunteers recruited other friends, family and community groups to volunteer.
In addition to distributing Care Sacks to people experiencing homelessness, they give Care Sacks to food pantries, youth service groups, organizations serving foster youth and others. They make and distribute soup weekly at the Open Doors Sleep shelter. They also collect monetary donations to buy supplies for other organizations. They purchase and donate protein shakes to cancer patients at the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation every month. They've also helped provide food to the Boys and Girls Club to feed kids over spring break.
Their volunteer base has grown as well. Several local schools, youth sports teams and community members have volunteered to assemble and distribute the Care Sacks.
In 2023, 1,047 volunteers logged more than 544 hours of service with Care Moses Lake.
"Volunteers are what makes Care Moses Lake," Boetger said. "We couldn't do what we do without them. Volunteering can be contagious, in a good way. People want to be part of a community and showing them the opportunities available and the positive impact on the community we live in is so important."
