FISH Community Food Bank’s Meals on Wheels program, a nutritional delivery service, will deliver Valentine’s Day cards to homebound seniors living across Kittitas County.

Meals on Wheels clients will receive their handmade card along with their meal on Feb. 11. Like some of the food that will make up the meals, the cards will also come from community donations.

FISH Executive Director Peggy Morache said the cards are a way to brighten the day of isolated clients, who often have little to no contact with anyone due to COVID-19.

“I think that our responsibility to our clients goes above and beyond just giving them food,” Morache said. “Anything at all that we can do to brighten their day, to let them know somebody cares about them and is thinking about them, that’s part of our job too.”

This project has taken a couple of different forms since last summer. Morache said

FISH first sent out adult coloring books to clients, then later partnered with Gallery-One Visual Art Center to send out bags of art supplies to help them fight boredom.

According to Morache, the items gave the clients a pleasant surprise.

“When we did the coloring books, nobody knew they were coming … and we had really good reception for that,” Morache said.

Recently, FISH has shifted its focus to birthday and holiday cards for clients.

According to FISH’s Facebook account, in addition to taking card donations from the community, the foodbank has been recruiting local families, schools, youth groups and teen groups to create cards.

Morache said that it’s been difficult to get group participation because many people aren’t officially meeting in-person. However, a few individuals have donated a good number of cards.

CWU graduate Reesa Nelson got together with her mom one day recently and made around 100 Valentine’s cards.

Nelson said they were originally making cards for a health center, but when she saw a FISH Facebook post asking for donations, they decided to make a couple extra for the food bank.

“It was like an eight-hour day of crafting,” Nelson said. “So, [we were like] let’s add on some more. What else do we got?”

Nelson said each card had its own design, combining different stickers, doilies and paper. The project allowed her to use some of her late grandmother’s materials that she’s been holding on to for the right occasion.

“This project was actually really satisfying for me in a way because I come from a long line of crafty women,” Nelson said.

To her, making the cards seemed like a small task that could make a positive impact on someone’s day.

“[We wanted to do] something nice for people that we don’t know, who we’ll never meet, but who still deserve nice things in life,” Nelson said. “I just hope [the cards] bring them a little bit of sunshine.”

FISH is accepting Valentine card donations through Feb. 10 either by mail or in-person at 804 Elmview Road in Ellensburg.