The Anacortes Point-in-Time count of the homeless population will occur on Friday, January 25. We plan to be at the three food banks in town on that day, asking people if they're homeless, and questions like how many people are living with them and where they last received mail.Based upon what we did three years ago, it would be nice to have two or three volunteers at each food bank, because the regular volunteers are so busy that they really don't have time to sit down for the two or three minutes it takes to speak with each homeless family.

The food banks have staggered and overlapping hours, so the logistics are somewhat of a problem.

On Friday, the Anacortes Food Bank (at 512 4th Street) is open from 10 AM until 2 PM; the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry (at St. Mary's Church, 4001 St Mary's Drive) is open from 10AM - 11 AM, and the Salvation Army's Food Bank (at 3001 R St) is open from 1 - 6 PM.

This homeless count, in addition to being an attempt to determine how many homeless men, women and children live in Anacortes, will also serve as one of the data points to increase our funding in support of the Skagit County's Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for an hour or so on Friday, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it