By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Two decades ago, Jesse Le, his wife, and their first child found themselves in the dark. The power company had cut off their power, and the family had no way to pay for the company to restore it.
Fortunately for the family, St. Luke’s Church in Federal Way stepped in, and paid for their power to be restored. They even offered the family food, Le said.
“They didn’t ask me for anything. They didn’t push me to join the church or anything,” Le recalled. “There was always in the back of my mind, ‘I want to do something for that church.’”
For Le, who works as a real estate broker with Inspire Management, that time is now.
Jesse Le with the long grocery receipt (Photo provided by Jesse Le)
In response to the Nov. 1 expiration of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, due to the ongoing federal shutdown, Le and his business partner, Patrick Choi, held a food drive on Nov. 4 at Inspire Management’s Newcastle office. Le said the drive was inspired by the help St. Luke’s provided him and his family all those years ago.
Though two federal judges ruled that the government had to find a way to continue the SNAP program, despite the federal shutdown, people who rely on the program will still have to wait at least a couple of weeks to see their benefits restored. Gov. Ferguson announced last week that the state will shift $2.2 million per week to support food banks across the state through the loss of SNAP benefits—but food banks were already facing a historically high need, even before SNAP ran out. This means that families who cannot afford groceries on their own may not have access to much food.
While they could not partner with the church, Le sees this as a parallel way to give back to the community.
Shoppers needed multiple pallets for the food they bought (Photo provided by Jesse Le)
“I wanted to do this directly and have a direct impact [for] the people who needed it as opposed to just throwing money at an organization,” Le explained. “The people who [are] impacted can … look someone in the face and know that there’s people in the community that actually care about them.”
Le said that he thought of the idea on the night of Oct. 30, as he was falling asleep. He realized that, regardless of how anyone feels about SNAP and the people who need it, “what matters is right now, this second, a family who has been relying on this suddenly doesn’t have it.”
Le originally thought that no one in the Newcastle area would need the help, but said he realized that there were people in need, after talking with apartment managers. He turned to ChatGPT for guidance on what non-perishables a small family could use for a week—with the help of his wife and a couple friends, Le spent Sunday and Monday shopping for a very, very long list of items to fill bags for families in need. It was “a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be,” Le said.
“We cleaned out a few stores and had cars full of stuff, and brought it all into the office and spent Monday afternoon and evening packaging everything,” he said. “We did bread, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce—a lot of non-perishable stuff.”
The group also put in black beans, canned chicken, bananas, potatoes, and oatmeal. He also said they made sure to include stuff kids would eat—he has three of his own, and knows how picky they can be—and included boxes of macaroni and cheese, too.
The trunk of one car was filled to the brim (Photo provided by Jesse Le)
Because the need for food assistance will only grow, Le said that he and Choi may do something like this again in the future—but with a little more planning. He said that the QFC next door to Inspire’s office told him that they could help out, if given about a week’s lead time to get ahold of the different grocery items, and that they may be able to work out a voucher system, so that people could get things like eggs and milk.
Le had originally set the drive’s target at a week’s worth of groceries for 25, three- or four-person families. Thanks to monetary donations from several companies and individuals who gave their time, including Flynn Family Lending, April Reichert at Guide Mortgage, Eve Home Staging, and Patrick Roberts with Starbright Chimney Sweep, Le and Choi were able to give a week’s worth of groceries to 100 small families.
Grocery bags filled with food take up an office space at Inspire Realty (Photo provided by Jesse Le)
When people came to pick up the grocery bags at Inspire’s office, neither Le nor Choi asked for identification or any proof that the person was in need. If they were there, Le said, it was likely they needed the help.
“I don’t imagine someone would come all the way here for two bags of groceries [when] they have no idea what [is in them],” Le said. “If someone’s showing up, they probably need it. That’s how we treated it.”
Le also cautioned against judging someone by their appearance. He thought there may have been a couple people who showed up who might not have needed the food—but he also remembered the financial crash of 2008 that meant he had a $100,000 car, but no money to put gas into it.
“I ended up losing it, but that’s something that happens, especially if someone’s self-employed,” Le said. “I know that firsthand. So that’s why I wasn’t going to pick and choose who was getting this.”
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