Two Moscow churches have sustained a collaborative effort to address childhood food insecurity during summer months, distributing groceries to more than 200 local children each week throughout the season.
The Food for Kids program operates from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, with weekly distribution every Friday from 11 a.m. to noon at Lena Whitmore Elementary School. Families do not need to apply or register; children can simply arrive during the designated window to receive a bag of groceries designed to last through the weekend.
Origins and Growth of a Community Response
The initiative emerged from documented need. In late 2012, the League of Women Voters published a poverty study of Moscow that identified food insecurity as a significant issue affecting local children. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church responded by launching Food for Kids in the summer of 2014. The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse joined the effort in 2015, and the two congregations have maintained the program collaboratively since then.
The program operates entirely through volunteer labor and community donations. Volunteers pack and distribute the food bags, and fundraising efforts—including a benefit concert held by the local band Gefilte Trout—help sustain operations.
Meeting Weekend Needs
The core mission reflects a practical understanding of the challenge many families face. As volunteer Lois Clifton explained, “We basically try to give them enough food for the whole weekend.” For families dependent on school meal programs during the academic year, the summer gap creates a real hardship that Food for Kids works to fill.
The program’s no-barrier approach—no applications, no income verification, no registration—means children can access food without the stigma or bureaucratic friction that sometimes discourages participation in assistance programs. This straightforward model has helped the initiative reach its current scale of over 200 children weekly.
Long-Term Commitment
Volunteer Mary Jo Hamilton stated the churches’ intention plainly: “We’re going to be doing this program for a long time.” That commitment was reinforced recently when longtime Moscow resident Joanne Sutton, a dedicated Food for Kids volunteer, made the program part of her legacy. Sutton’s obituary, published in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in January 2026, reflected her deep involvement in the initiative.
The benefit concert held two months after Sutton’s passing—featuring Gefilte Trout at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse—underscored community support for the program’s continuation and honored her commitment to addressing childhood hunger in Moscow.
Food for Kids represents a modest but meaningful local response to a documented community need, sustained by volunteer effort and the collaborative spirit of two faith communities working toward the same goal. As the program continues into its second decade, it remains one of Moscow’s primary tools for ensuring children have adequate nutrition during the summer months when traditional meal support ends.
For more information about the Food for Kids program or to contribute donations or volunteer time, community members can connect with St. Mark’s Episcopal Church or the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse.