Realtors’ food drive nets $1,355 and 1,670 pounds for food bank

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors raised $1,355 and brought in more than 1,670 pounds of food for the Moses Lake Food Bank during the association’s food drive last Tuesday, according to the group’s president, Kandi Bersanti.

“I thought it was a success even with the first two hours a little rainy,” Bersanti wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. “We got to spend a little time social distancing with our fellow Realtors – it was good for the soul and mind.”

The association organized the food drive to help the large number of Grant County residents who have lost their jobs as a result of Gov. Jay Inslee’s closure of businesses statewide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Employment Security Department, the state’s unemployment rate reached 15.4 percent in April, more than the national rate of 14.7 and well above the 4.4 percent unemployment rate for April 2019.

Bersanti said the association was so pleased with the results that it may do another food drive later this year.

“As an association we want to support our community and this was the perfect way to do it,” she wrote. “Maybe we will do it again in the fall.”