DELIVERING NEWS TO MID-COLUMBIA SENIORS SINCE 1982
JANUARY 2023
Vol. 11 | Issue 1
Restaurant returns to its river roots after fire
and mortar location. “It was one of those things where the heart wasn’t there, and we were so focused on getting Richland up and successful, that it really took a toll, at least it did in my vision,” she said. Wilson started contemplating capital improvements, maintenance issues and future expectations for each location. “It literally was, ‘Where are we headed?’ It was kind of one of those heartfelt moments. And then at 6 in the morning, my mom called, and my phone started blowing up, and it was, ‘Get down there,’ ” she said.
By Robin Wojtanik for Senior Times
Nine months after a fire forced Foodies from its downtown Kennewick space, the restaurant has been reborn in a new riverfront location where it can seat twice as many people. “It wasn’t a sad thing,” said owner Joanna Wilson of the closure of the former Foodies on West Kennewick Avenue. She’s leasing a space owned by the city of Kennewick at 2701 Paul Parish Drive, next to the city’s golf course in Columbia Park, west of the hydroplane pits. It has an unobstructed river view for events like Water Follies, the River of Fire and this month’s Lighted Boat Parade. Since first launching Foodies in 2014 as a roving kitchen on a pontoon boat, the restaurant has anchored itself as a Tri-City favorite. The night before the February 2022 blaze at the Cascade Building behind Foodies, Wilson had laid out
Fire damage Photo by Robin Wojtanik Joanna Wilson, owner of Foodies, brought the original sign from the Kennewick location to the restaurant’s new home in Columbia Park.
dry erase boards with the intention of brainstorming potential changes for the restaurant at 308 W. Kennewick Ave.
She felt the success of the Foodies expansion to 701 The Parkway in Richland had come on the back of the original Foodies, its first brick
Wilson could only stand by and watch as extensive smoke and water from the fire destroyed Foodies’ interior, forcing its immediate closure. A number of items were salvaged with the help of a restoration company. This included the tables and uFOODIES, Page 10
Ag educators shine in 2023 Mid-Columbia Hall of Fame By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
As a high schooler, Carol Travis was drawn to the flowers her classmates carried around Spokane’s Ferris High School, the results of a floral class offered through the ag program. She was drawn to the school’s charismatic ag advisor and to the thought of working plants. So, when faced with choosing an elective, the choice was obvious: She signed up for horticulture class, which would lead to a career in the plant world and eventually to New Horizons High
School in Pasco, where she launched a thriving Future Farmers of America chapter in 2010. Travis, together with fellow ag teacher Charlie Dansie of Connell High School, will be inducted into the MidColumbia Agriculture Hall of Fame on Jan. 19 as the 2023 Agriculture Advisor honorees. They will share the spotlight with Harold Cox, a longtime farmer and rancher honored with the Pioneer Award, and with Maury Balcom, a third-generation farmer honored with the Stewardship Award. Travis was a city girl back in Spo-
kane and came from a humble family. But the flowers and the ag program won her over and would help set her path. Her first job, at 15, was to care for the plants in the Ferris High greenhouse over the summer. She knew she wanted to be part of FFA from the start. “I’ve got to get one of those jackets,” she said. FFA would become the stage where she would compete, adding coveted patches from her travels to local, state and even national competitions to her blue and gold jacket. “FFA saved my life,” she said, shar-
ing how her career lifted her out of poverty, a lesson her students appreciate. “I value my FFA jacket more than my wedding dress. You buy a wedding dress. You have to earn your blue and gold,” she said. She dreamed of teaching even in high school, but family circumstances kept her from attending college. She worked for a nursery, then joined Yoke’s Fresh Markets in Spokane, working and thriving in the floral department. She moved to Pasco to open the chain’s first Tri-City store, working her uHALL OF FAME, Page 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
The safety rules for wintertime driving
Page 3
MONTHLY QUIZ
So you think it’s cold out? Hold my beer, says winter of 1919
Page 7
What was the name of the Richland movie theater that once occupied a location at Lee Boulevard and George Washington Way? ANSWER, PAGE 9
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