Preparing for emergencies can be expensive. When it comes to building an emergency food supply, the high cost is exacerbated by the fact that food expires more quickly than other resources. Add to that the rising cost of food in 2025 and 2026, and you might be tempted to ignore the issue altogether.

The partnership between Bainbridge Island Fruit Club and the BP Food Resilience Team, an initiative called Grow for Helpline, generated more than 3,000 pounds of food for Helpline House in 2025. Helpline House, the local food pantry, is experiencing a new level of stress generated by federal cuts to food aid and increased usage of its services.

In the past two years, the number of people coming to Helpline House food bank doubled. This spring, Helpline lost 40 percent of their funding to buy meat, dairy, and fruit and all of their funding to buy from local farms.

John Fossett, the adult services librarian at the Bainbridge Public Library, once attended a virtual preparedness summit at which a woman said, “If you can’t grow food in your community, you are not prepared.”