Helping Hands is Skagit County’s largest direct food provider with six distribution locations across Skagit County. We work to address the inequity in the food bank experience by focusing on participant autonomy and lowering the barriers to entry. We do not have any income or residency requirements, and all our locations provide participants with a choice of food that works best for them. Helping Hands also serves as a touch point to help connect participants with other local programs and services that can help provide stability for individuals and families. Our goal is to ensure that our community has access to the food and resources they need to help them thrive. For more information, visit HelpingHandsSkagit.org.

Cydney McFarland is the community outreach coordinator for Helping Hands Food Bank. She has worked at Helping Hands for a year. Cydney is a Burlington-Edison High School graduate; she then went on to study journalism at Arizona State University where she focused on local politics and social issues. She worked in journalism around the Pacific Northwest before finding her way back to Skagit County.