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Langley food bank temporarily closed after flooding

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 15, 2026

By Marina Blatt marina.blatt@whidbeynewsgroup.com

Photos provided. Although only some of the pantry’s food inventory came into direct contact with the water, the damage extended beyond food supplies. Computers, business licenses, carpets and furniture throughout the rooms were ruined.
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Photos provided. Although only some of the pantry’s food inventory came into direct contact with the water, the damage extended beyond food supplies. Computers, business licenses, carpets and furniture throughout the rooms were ruined.

Photos provided. Although only some of the pantry’s food inventory came into direct contact with the water, the damage extended beyond food supplies. Computers, business licenses, carpets and furniture throughout the rooms were ruined.
To help offset losses, Queen-Bee Pantry plans to hold a car wash and bake sale on May 24 at Bayview Appliance Mattress Center in Langley.
“It’s a mess,” Hernandez said, referring to the water covering the floor like an indoor puddle, and the ceiling that had pieces crumbled off.

The Queen-Bee Pantry relocated in March and was flooded in May.

What began as a successful Mother’s Day flower sale Sunday ended in disaster for the staff behind Queen-Bee Pantry, a food bank at 5826 Kramer Road in Langley. An unattended hose burst upstairs, flooding the organization’s newly opened location with four inches of water. The water got into the ceiling, walls and floors, forcing the food pantry to temporarily shut down.

According to Tanya Hernandez, a co-founder of the pantry, the building was empty Sunday afternoon. By the time she discovered the leak coming from the Bayview Barbershop, water had poured through the ceiling and, she said, spread throughout the three other businesses on the bottom floor of the building. The pantry, she said, got hit the hardest.

Although only some of the pantry’s food inventory came into direct contact with the water, the damage extended beyond food supplies. Computers, business licenses, carpets and furniture throughout the rooms were ruined.

Among the losses were sweatshirt merchandise and a bench valued at $700 that was being auctioned off.

“It’s a mess,” Hernandez said, referring to the water covering the floor like an indoor puddle, and the ceiling that had pieces crumbled off.

Though she is shaken up from the disaster, she knows the Whidbey community has the business’s back, Hernandez said.

“The community has helped build this,” she recalled, starting the food pantry in 2024 on her front porch, which consisted of just a couple of tables and “neighbors helping neighbors.” As demand grew, operations expanded into her garage before moving into the new pantry site earlier this year. Roughly 7,000 individuals visited the pantry last year alone, she said.

“We’re sad. We’re very sad and devastated, but we’re sure we’re gonna reopen and get back up,” Hernandez said.

For now, the organization is working with its insurance company while a restoration company tests for asbestos in the building before it rebuilds the water-damaged walls and removes the carpeting.

To help offset losses, Queen-Bee Pantry plans to hold a car wash and bake sale on May 24 at Bayview Appliance & Mattress Center in Langley. Food donations can still be made through the pantry’s website. Donations may be delivered to Hernandez’s home in Greenbank while the pantry remains closed. Contact Hernandez at 510-938-0168 or pantryqueenbee@gmail.com for more information.

“Queen-Bee Pantry was built on resilience, faith and community, and we fully intend to come back stronger,” read a statement on the Queen-Bee Pantry’s website.

Bayview Barbershop did not comment on the incident.

Learn more about the Queen-Bee Pantry at www.queen-beepantry.com.

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