SEATTLE — As the coronavirus pandemic wears on, forcing people out of work, Northwest Harvest in Seattle has been busier than ever feeding the hungry.
Now, the non-profit is taking a temporary step back to make sure its own staff is taken care of.
Northwest Harvest announced a six-day ‘recharge’ of paid time off for the whole organization from Wednesday to Tuesday. CEO Thomas Reynolds said long hours of work these past few months was taking its toll on employees, and though they were encouraged to take time off, few would because they were committed to the mission.
“Since March, Northwest Harvest employees have been working more than full-time, sometimes six and seven days a week to respond to the catastrophic numbers of food-insecure people in Washington,” he said. “I just felt like it was time for the whole staff to take a break.”
He said this will be additional paid vacation time for employees, not taken out of existing allocations. Though an expense, he said this is a good time for people to get a break, with a tough fall expected: food insecurity increases in October through December in a normal year, even without COVID-19 decimating the economy.
Though there have been some supply chain constrictions lately, which are improving, he said this is about helping their staff.
“We want to make sure we take care of people, so they can be strong, and they have a chance to recover,” he said.
NW Harvest has put a plan in place to support folks over the break – distributing extra food to food banks statewide on the front end, and it will also ship out extra after staff return.
“Food insecure people, they’re not taking time off. Hunger doesn’t take time off,” said Reynolds.
Angela Beabout, who said she comes to the SODO market location several times a week, was grateful for their assistance – and that staff would get a rest.
“Oh, absolutely, they need it,” she said. “Everyone needs some downtime, some me-time. Absolutely, because they work very hard.”