Island Senior: Shopping With “Soroptibucks”

From the Farmer's Market - Peggy Sue McRae photo

Island Senior is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae…

Eat­ing fresh whole­some food is one of the cor­ner­stones of main­tain­ing good health. As any­one who shops for food knows, this can get expen­sive. Sorop­ti­mist Inter­na­tion­al of Fri­day Har­bor has gen­er­at­ed greater access to good food by part­ner­ing with San Juan Coun­ty Health and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices to offer Farmer’s Mar­ket coupons, or “Soroptibucks” to Women, Infants, and Chil­dren (WIC) and to low-income Seniors. When the word went out at the Mullis Cen­ter ear­li­er this year I applied.

Yes­ter­day, I shopped at the Farmer’s Mar­ket with my Soroptibucks. While the state offers Farm­ers Mar­ket coupons under the Wash­ing­ton State Senior Farm­ers Mar­ket Nutri­tion Pro­gram, I was hap­py to see that with my Soroptibucks I could pur­chase fruits, veg­eta­bles, herbs, meats, cheese, eggs, seafood, pas­ta, bread, hon­ey, and jam… Coupons from the state are to be used for pro­duce only plus approved hon­ey and herbs.

I made my first pur­chase at Mama Bird Farm’s toma­to stand. I bought two dif­fer­ent kinds of gar­lic, some Spicy Thai sea salt, and final­ly I pur­chased some Island Grown ground beef from Guard Sund­strom at the Meat Wag­on. Guard told me that he sells to lots of peo­ple with Soroptibucks. It is a pop­u­lar pro­gram. Thanks Soroptimists!

We’ve all heard the adage, “Tis more blessed to give than to receive”. Hav­ing been on both sides of that equa­tion I can vouch for it. When we are giv­ing it means we not only have enough for our­selves but we are blessed with a sur­plus from which to share with oth­ers. It feels good to be the author of such largesse. To be on the receiv­ing end can feel a bit hum­bling espe­cial­ly in a cul­ture like ours that prizes self-reliance. I urge you though, if you could use the help, not to be shy. You are not alone.

Thanks to the Sorop­ti­mists for their gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions to our com­mu­ni­ty and thanks to our Farm­ers Mar­ket for the fan­tas­tic food!

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