This weekend, islanders who are concerned about hunger are invited to attend the forum “Who Is Hungry on Vashon and What Can We Do About It?”

The forum, slated for Sunday afternoon, is sponsored by the Vashon Social Services Network — a consortium of island service providers. It aims to educate people about current efforts to address the many faces of hunger on Vashon and brainstorm potential new services and methods to help fill in the gaps. All are welcome, from other service providers and clients, to clergy and islanders simply interested in the issue and making a difference.

Vashon Maury Community Food Bank Executive Director Robbie Rohr will facilitate the event and is the lead organizer. Rohr said she believes that many people do not understand the full impact of hunger in this community.

Data from 2015 shows that one in 10 island residents used the food bank that year — a figure that Rohr believes is low as a true indication of who is hungry. After a forum last year centering on who is hungry on the island, Rohr said she now wants people to know more about available services and programs — from food vouchers to prepared meals to groceries — that they can use themselves or direct others to.

“We want folks to know what services are available,” she stressed.

She added that while last year’s forum was about compassion and awareness, this year’s forum moves beyond that.

“We are at the problem-solving stage,” she said.

Vashon Senior Center’s Ava Apple has been part of the planning process and noted that seniors have unique needs regarding nutrition. As people age, they require fewer calories, she said, so higher quality food is needed to avoid weight gain and diabetes. This can be especially challenging when seniors are living on a fixed income.

“It can get expensive to eat well,” she added.

In addition to cost, Apple said that she intends for the group to look at other barriers seniors face regarding nutrition and hunger, including transportation, poor eyesight and memory loss.

She added she was looking forward to brainstorming with those in the room to begin creating solutions.

“I have so much confidence in this community that if we identify a problem, we can solve it,” she said.

At The DoVE Project, director Betsy Archambault has also been part of the planning process and spoke to the need as she sees it at her agency.

“Domestic violence and hunger are inextricably linked,” she said.

Hunger affects 47 percent of single mothers, she said, and living on Vashon has challenges of its own in this regard. There are few jobs and little job training. She added she has great appreciation for the island’s many volunteers, who make several of Vashon’s nonprofits run, but she noted there is also a bigger picture.

There is something to be said for creating jobs, she said. “It deeply impacts food stability.”

Figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that 17 percent of rural Americans are hungry, she added. On Vashon that equates to nearly 2,000 people.

“For me the conversation is … what else can we do?” she said.

Juniper Rogneby of the Food Access Partnership, which provides vouchers to the farmers market and farm stands and conducts cooking programs, spoke similarly. She said she and the organizers hoped to “shake the tree” and see challenges through fresh eyes and with people who might have new energy and ideas for solutions, whether they be new partnerships or technological solutions.

“We are curious to know what we don’t know,” she said.