POULSBO — North Kitsap Fishline’s latest gift — a $100,000 grant from the Sunderland Foundation — puts it at $2.2 million of its $3 million fundraising goal for construction of its new Food Bank and Comprehensive Services Center on Viking Avenue.
Site preparation is underway and construction is expected to begin in August, with expected completion in spring 2018, Fishline Executive Director Mary Nader reported.
The two-story, 15,000- square-foot services center is designed to provide a central location for various services that are scattered throughout the county — services that are vital for those working to transform their lives.
“It’s a long way from Kingston to Bremerton or Port Orchard to see a therapist,” Sandi Carlton, executive director of Kitsap Sexual Assault Center, said in an earlier interview.
“Collaboration and one-stop service are always an important thing when providing social services, and we’d like to be able to provide these services to everyone.”
Kitsap Sexual Assault Center is one agency that will have an office in the new services center. Others: Kitsap Mental Health Services, Kitsap Community Resources, YWCA, Sound Works Job Center, and Department of Social and Health Services.
In addition, Peninsula Community Health Services will have a four-chair dental office there.
The top floor will house the various service agencies. The bottom floor will be occupied by a new food bank, rebranded the “Healthy Foods Market.” The current food bank and offices will be used as a warehouse, a clothing closet, educational space, and possibly a community center.
The project was approved by the city on March 31. Fishline is in the midst of a $500,000 capital campaign to help fund the project (www.nkfishline.org, 360-779-4191).
The project architect is Rice Fergus Miller. The contractor is FPH Construction.
“This is the kind of project we like to fund,” Sunderland Foundation President Kent Sunderland said in an announcement of the grant.
“It is a legacy project that will have a big impact on the North Kitsap community, helping people break out of the cycle of poverty through coordination of services and case management. We are happy we could help fund the Fishline Transforming Lives Capital Campaign and the Comprehensive Services Center we will help build.”
The Sunderland Foundation was established in 1945 by Lester T. Sunderland, who served as president of the Ash Grove Cement Company for 33 years and was a respected leader in the cement industry.
For more than seven decades, the foundation has focused on supporting brick-and-mortar projects, awarding grants to nonprofits in areas where Ash Grove Cement Company does business.
