No one deserves to go hungry, whether it is over the holidays or on any given Tuesday. That's why the Thurston County Food Bank needs your help; the need is always present.

The Thurston County Food Bank provides food for 400 families within the county every day. The downtown location, 220 Thurston Ave. NE in Olympia, serves the community three days a week and offers extended evening hours two evenings a month. To supplement, there are 17 satellite locations throughout Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, which are open when the downtown location is closed.

"During the holiday season we have two days called ‘Super Sort Saturdays' and volunteers are needed on these days to sort donations for shelving," stated Fran Potasnik, office assistant for the Thurston County Food Bank.

The two upcoming sort days are Dec. 21 and Jan. 11. Those interested in volunteering should send an email to volunteers@thurstoncounty foodbank.org.

Volunteers are also scheduled Monday, Wednesday and Friday of every week and are tasked with repackaging food, cleaning produce, building food bags and setting up the food bank in preparation for the actual food distribution. Anyone is welcome to volunteer and kids ages 12 and older may volunteer without parental supervision; an adult must accompany anyone younger.

Then, of course, donations are always welcome. Regardless of the time of year, the food bank is always in need of the following items: canned soup (especially during the winter months); peanut butter; canned fruit in natural juice; boxed cereal; boxed mac and cheese; canned vegetables; canned protein, like tuna or chicken; and canned chili, either meat or vegetarian.

Donations are accepted between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. If donating a large quantity of food, workers ask that you pull into the loading bay, located on the Franklin Street side of the building. If you require assistance unloading, you can call 360.352.8597, ext. 100, ahead of time.

Donated food also goes toward supplying the FORKids program, which provides food to nearly 1,700 elementary school-aged children, many of whom are homeless, and are often left hungry over the weekend. The schools identify the children and then the bags are put together and delivered to each school where the bags are discreetly distributed on Friday afternoons.

Each FORKids bag includes about four meals worth of food intended to last over the weekend. All of the food items donated for this program should be easy for kids to open and prepare, like pudding cups, fruit leather, cheese and cracker packets, fruit cups, applesauce cups, breakfast bars or hot and cold cereal packets.

Monetary donations are also accepted and can be made via the website or in person at the downtown location. For more information, call 360.352.8597 or go to thurstoncountyfoodbank.org.