While Americans are trying to find a cool place for vacation this summer, the bears in Alaska are working hard to prep for hibernation. The brown bears in Katmai National Park are parked at Brooks Falls, where the typical bear eats up to 40 salmon per day to prepare for the long winter’s hibernation.

The bears in Alaska are working hard, and so are fishermen in the Bristol Bay and APA fleets. Salmon are already arriving in Seattle for the next processing run and we are continuing to move pollock through the pipeline to Feeding America food banks and feeding centers around the country. In July we worked with Channel Seafoods in Massachusetts to send four truckloads (36,000 pounds each) of pollock portions to Greater Boston Food Bank, Forgotten Harvest in Michigan, FulFill in New Jersey, Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota.

In late July we were prepping for the future with a photo shoot at Food Lifeline and Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. Thanks to the staff at both locations, board member Pat Shanahan, and Dan Lamont of Tatoosh Media, who did an amazing job for us.

The shoot at Food Lifeline included volunteers from The Cheesecake Factory, who inspected and labeled 2,400 cans of salmon from OBI Seafoods (part of a 40,000-pound donation made by OBI). The cans were inspected for dents and labeled for redistribution throughout Food Lifeline’s network of more than 300 affiliate food banks throughout Washington.

The Union Gospel Mission photo shoot was lunch at Hope Place, a women’s shelter. While the shelter’s kitchen serves as a commissary for UGM’s other shelter locations, the day we visited featured salmon lunch for 60 using our donated salmon. Both guests and staff were very gracious with their time and we appreciate it!

Be on the lookout for some stellar photos and videos from Dan in upcoming social media posts and blogs on our website!