History
HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
1982
Vancouver Lions Club members “Bud” Pasmore and Doug Rae got this crazy idea to do a great big food drive and gained the help of Hazel Dell and Orchards/Evergreen Lions Clubs.
1982-1984
The first couple of years were tough, but they got it done. At this time they did not have access to semi-trucks, forklifts, pallets or many volunteers, so the drive happen over the course of several days.
1985
The food drive idea became officially known as Interservice Walk & Knock. The Columbian Newspaper got involved by arranging for the paper bag inserts that go into the newspaper, paid sponsors, marketing, and assigned a reporter to get the word out. The Inter-Service endeavor goal of $100,000 worth of food was set and reached. That equated to 42 tons of food.
1991
The organization was officially incorporated as Interservice Walk & Knock of Clark County.
The Port of Vancouver donates a warehouse to store the food in, Puget Sound Truck Line and Anderson Dairy donate semi-trucks.
2002
The record of 155 tons was achieved.
2008
Roughly 3,600 volunteers came out to help. The volunteers collected more than 20% more food from the previous year despite a 21% decrease of volunteers.
2009
The Walk & Knock Food Drive has grown to include over 20 service clubs and organizations including: Lions, Rotary, Kiwans, Optimist, Clark County Amateur Radio Clubs of Clark County, and the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts of America.
Walk & Knock celebrated its 25th year as Clark County's largest food drive. Over the course of the last 24-years the annual one-day food drive has grown to an average collection of 132 tons.
2010
Collection day is the first Saturday in December and happens from 9 AM - 1 PM.
To date, Walk & Knock has collected 5,695,018 lbs of food valued at just over $7.4 million.