KENNEWICK, Wash. –
Family Resource Center of the Tri-cities lost power for seven and a half hours Saturday in the middle of preparing for a Mother’s Day event. When the power came back on 21 of the ceiling lights didn’t.
Now it may take up to two weeks before they can be fully replaced, leaving Executive Director Yadira Galvan wondering what’s next for the food bank.
“If we don’t have power back, we can’t run the food bank because it’s so dark back there, there’s no windows,” she said.
In a power outage, businesses have to check in with the health district after two hours according to the food code.
“It’s frozen now, but the tops started thawing out and the middle is still kind of felt with ice, so we decided to keep it. We paid over 1,500 dollars for meat. So that’s a lot of meat to throw out,” Galvan said.
After contacting the Benton Franklin Health District staff told her throwing away the food was up to her.
“The purpose of that is so we could work with them on making that decision if the food is still safe or if it does need to be discarded,” said Food Safety Program Supervisor with the Benton Franklin Lars Rachins.
The health district says fridges and freezers are pretty well insulated and that as long as you keep the doors closed the food should be fine for hours in the event of a power outage.
“There are quite a few food-borne illness pathogens that can grow when the food is out of safe temperatures. Typically, that temperature is 41 degrees or higher,” Rachins said.
He recommends checking the temperature using a food thermometer if you’re concerned about salmonella, listeria and other food-borne illnesses.
You can also take a look at the FDA’s chart on food safety.
He says if the food looks or smells out of the ordinary throwing it out might be the safest option.
As for the family resource center, Galvan says she’s not sure if crews will be able to fix the lights in time for the next food pick-up meaning some of the food may have to be thrown out anyway.
