One of the Island’s Most Cherished Nonprofits – Helpline House – is in the Midst of Raising Millions to Expand its Operations

Editor’s Note: Due to a technical glitch, a draft version of this story was published last Friday evening. Here is the edited version.

Helpline House, one of Bainbridge’s most cherished nonprofits, is about to embark on a major expansion plan.

The organization, which serves as the island’s primary food bank, has moved several times since it’s early inception in 1968 in a cramped garage, before landing at its current location at 282 Knechtel Way some four decades ago.

A lot has changed for the nonprofit in that arch of time, prompting backers and volunteers to pull together an $11 million capital campaign quest to expand the facility’s footprint and services. “The space hasn’t changed that much (over the years),” says board member and fundraising chair Ralph Spillinger, “but the island has and the needs have. … Our current space is wholly inadequate for what we do.”

Besides offering food for those in need, Helpline House offers up a bevy of services to islanders and off-islanders. Among those are scholarship for kids, social services, rent assistance, mental health counseling, financial aid, house and energy assistance, legal help and more.

Behind the need for the new building – to be constructed on roughly the same footprint – and expanded services, is a steady increase in demand for food and other programs. From the outside looking in, Bainbridge Island appears to be a wealthy, upscale enclave, which it is in many respects. But dig below the surface and there are some pockets of real need here. Not everyone is a tech millionaire or a high paid lawyer. Some people have lost their jobs, or have found themselves in financial trouble and seek out Helpline House’s services to keep going.

“It’s difficult to serve all those who come to us in our cramped space,” says Maria Metzler, the nonprofit’s Executive Director. “When our current building was built over 40 years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that we’d serve close to 500 households in a week in the food bank alone (that was the record high set one week last year). Additionally, the building wasn’t built with the services in mind that we offer today – again due to community need.”

Metzler continues, “Our current structure is aging, it needs upgrades in nearly all areas like wiring, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), and so on, and is not at all ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990) compliant or accessible. The new building will be an improvement in so many ways.”

To date, Helpline House volunteers have raised more than $7 million of its $11 million goal. The money has come from grants, foundations, private donations, the State Department of Commerce, and the organization’s on-going reserves. If all goes according to plan, construction will begin in May of this year, with potential occupancy of the new site set for the summer of 2026. Before construction begins, however, Helpline House will relocate temporarily to the former Frontier Bank Building on the corner of Wallace Way and Hildebrand Way.

Helpline House is just one of a handful of local nonprofits that have completed, or are about to launch, capital fundraising campaigns. Last year, Bainbridge Performing Arts put the finishing touches on its $20 million campaign to build the new Buxton Center. Later this year, the Bainbridge Island Community Senior Center and the Bainbridge History Museum will embark on capital campaigns of their own. BICSC is seeking $22 million to do a massive upgrade on its Waterfront Park facility, while BHM is hoping to raise $5 million to overhaul and expand it’s existing space, just off of Eriksen Avenue in Downtown Winslow. Further out, the BARN is planning a major expansion of its campus off of New Brooklyn Road.

Meanwhile, local architect Jonathan Davis, co-founder of Davis Studio Architecture + Design, (https://davisstudioad.com/) is moving forward with his designs and plans to remake Helpline House. Davis, who designed The Walk, a multi-generational townhouse community on Madrona Lane, and phases of The Grow Community, among other projects, is re-imaging the space, which will double in size to accommodate all the services the nonprofit offers.

“Right now,” he says, “the two existing buildings are separated by a grade. The programs are all shoehorned in to a small space. Our challenges is how to we build a building that serves all these needs.”

Under the plan, the one acre site will include 50 parking spaces and reconfigured approaches to providing services, such as the concept of “one front door,” part of what Metzler, Davis and Spillinger call Helpline House’s “one community approach.”

The new building will be 12,000 square feet, double the size of the existing facilities. The roof will include Solar Panels that Davis says “will generate almost 100 percent of (Helpline’s) energy needs.” which is their biggest monthly cost.

In the new layout, food deliveries will occur in the rear of the building. A new commercial kitchen will allow Helpline House – which has 12 full-time employees – to do more with what it receives in donations. Thanks to a food service consultant, Davis and company received help in designing the new food bank, which is growing from 300 square feet in its current configuration to 1200 square feet. It will include “a lot of natural light,” Davis says, and “views down to the lobby.”

Davis is adding an elevator to the second floor, where some nine social service offices will be located. On the first floor, a conference room – that will double as a community room – will be located just off the main lobby and will include a separate entrance for after hours activities.

There’s also a “porch pantry” in the food bank, with beautiful built-in boxes made by BARN volunteers, for visitors to use after hours. Not everyone who accesses Helpline Houses wants to be seen, so this entry provides some autonomy, Davis and others say.

“People don’t want to be recognized by someone,” he says. “It’s not the first thing you see. It’s not front and center.”

So who is the typical Helpline House client, if there is such a thing? “One of the best parts about Helpline House is that there is no typical client,” Metzler insists. “We all need help at different times and in different ways.  Some come to Helpline weekly; some come once or twice a year when needs arise.  We have folks who work in the Post Office, our grocery stores, medical and dental offices, our dance studios, with the school district, at Islandwood, and more. We have folks who are on fixed incomes due to age or abilities.  We have folks who are currently experiencing homelessness and/or don’t have an income at the moment.”

“We serve our community in many ways and we’re all better for it.”