When you do good, you feel good.

 And Rod Koon appreciates how the Emergency Food Network (EFN) makes it easy for people to accomplish both of those goals.

Rod works at the Port of Tacoma and has been involved with EFN since 2009. That’s when the Port added an EFN Food Drive to their annual November Apple Cup employee potluck event. The food drive pitted the Husky fans against the Cougar fans. Sometimes the Huskies won (based on pounds), and sometimes, the Cougars did. But the real winner in the competition was EFN.

Longtime volunteer Loni Shorten started the partnership and collaboration with EFN back in 2009. For many years, she spearheaded the Apple Cup food drives and recruited volunteers for weekend repack projects with EFN on behalf of the Port. Sadly, Loni passed away in 2020.

Now, Port employees carry on Loni’s commitment to EFN whenever they volunteer. Rod remembers the group’s very first repack in January 2014 fondly. The group of eight packed 8,300 pounds of pinto beans in under three hours. The group included Loni, Rod and his wife, and other Port employees (pictured below).  

The Port has ramped up its commitment to EFN over the years, and now the Port of Tacoma is one of EFN’s most dedicated volunteer groups. Port employees, family members, and friends repack food one Saturday every month. Rod is a regular member of the Port’s repack team. His wife and daughter Jessie and Kelsi, have also worked side by side with him on many of the repacks.

According to Rod, “A big part of my communications work at the Port involves finding innovative ways to connect with employees. Our work with EFN allows us to make that employee connection as well as connecting our employees to the needs of our greater community as well. It’s also a great way to get family members and children of Port employees involved as well.

 Many organizations do various team-building exercises, like trust falls and mountain climbing. But in my opinion, if you want to get to know your co-workers and build teamwork— do some food repacks at EFN. Once you’ve shucked corn, repacked thousands of pounds of frozen carrots, lifted 50-pound bags of rice with them, you’ll see how everyone can truly work together to get important stuff done.” 

 While most of Rod’s EFN volunteer efforts have been working with the Port’s Saturday repack teams, he has also worked to get two other groups he’s involved with—Tacoma Sunrise Rotary and the Transportation Club of Tacoma—out for repack projects. TCT is a major, longtime supporter of EFN.

 When asked about why these groups choose to be involved at EFN, Rod said, “EFN’s mission and ‘ask’ is both direct and compelling, it’s no big mystery what work EFN does, why it’s important and how you’re doing it. I know that $1 equals 5 meals, and when we do a food repack, we make wholesale bulk products into retail distribution sizes. It just makes sense—especially to TCT members, who understand the logistics side of the equation.”  

During the pandemic, Rod also found a very innovative way to support EFN. 

Initially, his band, The Possible Solutions, was booked to perform at EFN’s Hunger Walk & 5K in May 2020. Rod pivoted and came up with a novel approach when that live event was canceled due to the pandemic.

He and some of his bandmates put on a series of 13 socially-distance concerts in Rod’s front yard at a time when there wasn’t any live music happening anywhere.

Between their donation box, Venmo, and the EFN website, they raised more than $6,000 for EFN during these concerts. Many people also donated food to EFN during these gigs. Eric Johnson highlighted Rod’s concert story in a news segment on KOMO-TV.

Asked about the concerts, Rod said, “They were a total blast! What could be better than doing what you love and raising some money for a great cause at the same time? And people were hungry for live entertainment, so it was a great time to be doing them. It was all a big, fun win-win!

 But this innovative and joyful fundraiser is just one example of how something so impactful comes so naturally to Rod, who cares deeply about his community: “To me, when you do good, you feel good, and EFN makes it easy to do good. You’re asking people to contribute a small part of their day to do a repack. What could be easier? You’re in, you’re out. You have some fun, and you’ve done some good!”