Food Sources

Our food comes from a variety of sources that varies depending on many factors. Read more about the many ways we get food for the Community Cupboard below, including the following:

  • State-funded sources

  • Grocery Rescue

  • Community Donations & Food Drives

  • Purchasing

  • Farm-to-Food Pantry

  • Individual Donations

State-Funded Food

A majority of the food at the Community Cupboard comes from state-funded food sources. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) receives funding from the state budget to purchase food for food pantries across WA state. This food is delivered to Chelan Douglas Community Action Council (CDCAC) in Wenatchee monthly. We pick up our allotted food every week. CDCAC houses other food from community drives, grocery rescue, and miscellaneous programs that we also have access to.

Grocery Rescue

The Community Cupboard is incredibly grateful to have partnerships with three Leavenworth-area grocery stores that regularly donate groceries to us.

Grocery Rescue provides a variety of foods for the Cupboard, such as bread, meat, salads, ready-to-go meals, dairy products, and produce.

In 2024, these partners donated the following amount of food to our food pantry:

  • Safeway: 47,392 pounds

  • Sage Mountain Natural Foods: 3,507 pounds

  • Dan’s Market: 1,853 pounds

Community Donations & Food Drives

We could not keep the pantry stocked without donations from a number of different businesses and community-led groups.

Produce Donations

  • Prey’s Fruit Barn

  • Bluebird Packing House

  • CrunchPak

Local Food Drives

  • Church Drives

  • Community Groups

  • Holiday Food Drives

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Purchasing

Although much of our food is donated, the Community Cupboard also purchases food to ensure we have enough—and enough variety—to serve our clients, who come from all over North Central Washington. This also ensures we can offer consistent staples, such as eggs, tortillas, milk, beans, and other items.

To ensure that we’re fulfilling our mission to meet each need with dignity, we prioritize purchasing nutritious and culturally-significant foods, in addition to surveying shoppers to make sure we’re purchasing the foods they want and enjoy. We also have a nutrition policy to make sure we’re providing healthy choices to our shoppers.

Farm-to-Food Pantry

The Washington State Department of Agriculture provides funding to many organizations across the state to purchase produce directly from local farmers. We work with Harvest Against Hunger to receive these funds to fill the pantry with fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. Many of the farmers we purchase from donate produce through our gleaning program.

Donations from people like you

Apart from all the sources listed above, we also depend on help from local community members, who donate food, produce from their gardens, or funds to help us keep the pantry stocked so no one has to go hungry.

Feeding Our Community