The Port Townsend Food Bank is looking for donations of nonfood items, even if that donation is the last inch of shampoo in a bottle.

“Someone can go to the boatyard and wash their hair once,” said Shirley Moss, director of the food bank.

To disperse those donations, the Port Townsend Food Bank has installed a wooden wheel donated by the Boeing Bluebills. Before food bank customers leave, they can spin the wheel and choose an item.

Moss originally got the idea from the Quilcene Food Bank. “I asked Myron Vogt from the Bluebills to make one for us,” she said. “He made a really nice one.”

Carol Chandler oversees the wheel spinning. She moved to the area a couple of years ago and started volunteering at the food bank.

“It's really a nice group of people that work at the food bank. Shirley Moss just does a phenomenal job,” she said, adding that she enjoys seeing the many people who come in on a regular basis. “It serves such a need for a lot of people.”

Chandler explained that the wheel has three colors – red, white and blue – and that each of those colors matches up with a group of items on the table, out of which people can choose one item, depending on what color they spin. And if someone spins gold, they get something extra special she said, like a set of sheets or a toaster.

“It's the last thing that people do,” Chandler said. “It's a fun thing for them to do, and they're going to get something that they can use – any little thing that sometimes is not that easy to come by.”

ITEMS NEEDED

Moss noted that at this time of year many people are moving, and that’s a great time to give nonfood items to the food bank that would normally go to a garage sale or be thrown away.

Although the food bank cannot accept opened food items, it can take opened nonfood items, such as shampoo, conditioner and cleansers.

Anything that cleans the body or the home is a great donation, said Moss.

Bags of dog and cat food (okay if opened) also are helpful, as are leashes and food bowls. Next to the wheel, she said, is a place for pet supplies.

Also in high demand are women’s hygiene products.

“Every young woman needs them, and they’re expensive.”

Other useful items are camping gear for homeless people. “Anything like old tents or tarps that might help the homeless is really, really welcome,” Moss said.

And household items such as blenders, toaster ovens and dishes are great, too, as are clothes and sheets. Moss noted that someone donated a large amount of men’s clothing, and it went in one day.

“We just don’t want furniture – no big things,” she said. “And we don’t want trash.”

WHERE TO DONATE

The Port Townsend Food Bank is located at 1925 Blaine St., at the corner of Blaine and Walker, in the old Mountain View School building.

Items can be left on the bench in the hallway Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., or brought by the Port Townsend Food Co-op or QFC grocery store.

Food bank customers can arrive as early as 6:30 a.m. on Wednesdays to put their names on the list for food and other items, and show up between 9:55 a.m. and 2:40 p.m. to get those items. There’s also a “quick pick” room where people can pick up something in 10 minutes if they’re in a hurry.

The food bank is also open from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays for seniors ages 65 and older.

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/offvdea.