October 1, 2025
Click on link to read story: https://www.vbjusa.com/news/top-stories/accomplished-and-under-40-class-of-2020/
Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers is the latest to publicly announce her intention to run in 2021 as she seeks re-election for her Position 6 seat on council.
Jonathan Haukaas/jonathan@thereflector.com Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers has committed to drive into Portland, pick up 200 premade feminine hygiene product kits and deliver them to Battle Ground Public School’s Family and Community Resource Center (FCRC) in Brush Prairie, for as long as there is a need. Awhile back DesRochers heard rumblings in the area about there being a high demand, but a low supply, of feminine hygiene products available to girls in the Battle Ground school district. Many times that void was filled by district staff, like nurses buying it themselves, said Martha Bellcoff, Family Resource Services Specialist at FCRC. DesRochers founded and is president of Food with Friends, whose goal is combating homelessness in the community by helping connect the homeless with various resources fit to their needs. She thought providing feminine hygiene products could be a good opportunity for Food with Friends to help local youth and started doing more research and found an organization based in Portland called Period. Period. was founded in 2014 and supplies feminine hygiene product kits to girls and women in need, primarily through campus chapters at high schools and universities. “After learning what the possibilities were, I really started to think
Jonathan Haukaas / jonathan@thereflector.com Food with Friends, a homeless outreach nonprofit serving Clark County, today received 5,000 pairs of socks from a national nonprofit called Bombas. Bombas was launched in 2013 after one of the founders heard that socks are the most requested item in homeless shelters. Working with their giving partners, Bombas staff said they designed a sock that requires fewer washings thanks to a antimicrobial treatment and lasts longer with reinforced seams. Bombas operates under a one-for-one business model: a pair of socks is donated to the homeless each time pair of Bombas socks are purchased. Food with Friends was founded by Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers and her friend Jamie Spinelli, an outreach case manager at Community Service Northwest. Along with bringing food, toiletries, clothes, and other supplies to the homeless, they do volunteer screening and training for emergency shelters and run a coordinated outreach hotline. Earlier this year they expanded their efforts by launching the Shower Outreach Project, offering free showers via portable showers they park around the county. DesRochers said a lack of clean socks is a continual problem they see. “One I didn’t realize entirely until we started the SOP (Shower Outreach Project),”
Christmas in July donation drive raised more than 3,000 socks, t-shirts, and more, plus cookies, to be given to the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center Battle Ground Senior Citizens, Inc., joined forces with Home Instead this month for a Christmas in July donation drive, and together they raised needed items for the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center. The Battle Ground seniors and Home Instead have been working together on this project for three years. This year, the program brought in more than 3,000 pairs of socks, T-shirts, and underwear to ensure local veterans are well equipped with necessary items. These essential items are critical in helping veterans in need stay warm, comfortable, and protected against the harsh elements. “We were able to have such a huge success with the help from some friends,” said Sharon Wodtke, president of Battle Ground Senior Citizens, Inc. She noted Battle Ground Walmart for its help. Plus Cherish DesRochers-Vafeados of the Battle Ground city council, who brought in more than 700 socks herself with her relationship with Bomba Socks. Girls Scouts Troop 10072 also brought in cookies as part of the Cookie Share program. “It is such a wonderful feeling to bring groups together to
A mobile shower trailer is getting closer to providing hot showers for people living outside — and it’s got a new name. Food with Friends aims to get the Shower Outreach Project, or SOP (like sopping wet), operational in the next few weeks. Last summer, local outreach volunteers looked into getting a shower trailer after Share House discontinued providing showers to unsheltered clients, citing wear and tear on the building and sewage problems. Portland-based PDX Cart Builder finished building the trailer, which has two showers, and it was recently moved to Vancouver. However, it still needs to be insured, registered and otherwise made street legal. Jamie Spinelli, a volunteer with Food with Friends and a case manager at Community Services Northwest, said there’s ongoing fundraising for the operational costs of the trailer. Also, she said, they’re looking for locations that could host it. The trailer connects directly to water, power and sewer. Those sites could offer as many or as few showers as they want, and provide volunteers to help staff it. “We’re working on solidifying a schedule with locations and volunteers,” Spinelli said. The aim is to bring the showers to different locations in the county, not just downtown.
Rick Bannan / rick@thereflector.com One elected member of north Clark County government is doing her part in a countywide effort to help those experiencing homelessness. On a relatively dry day in January, Battle Ground Deputy Mayor Cherish DesRochers showed off a new bathroom unit stationed at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Vancouver. “The pod,” as DesRochers has dubbed it, is more permanent than a more mobile shower trailer, but is an extension of the nonprofit’s overarching “Shower Outreach Project” or the “SOP.” The pod features a full shower, toilet and sink, which are all connected to heated plumbing. It is the latest effort by Food With Friends, a nonprofit started by DesRochers and Jamie Spinelli. Spinelli now serves as the city of Vancouver’s homelessness response coordinator. “It’s been a couple years in the making,” DesRochers said. DesRochers said she raised roughly $4,500 to buy the pod at a Portland-based auction around 2019. DesRochers said the China-made unit is intended to be at construction sites for workers. When she purchased it, the unit didn’t have plumbing or a heater for hot water. Prior to its installation at the church, the pod made several moves across Clark County while Food With Friends figured
Jonathan Haukaas/jonathan@thereflector.com In 2016, now Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers and her friend Jamie Spinelli, a case manager at Community Service Northwest, spearheaded an outreach program in Clark County called Food with Friends with a focus on bringing food, toiletries and other supplies to the homeless. The outreach, described in simplest terms by DesRochers as a grassroots effort to fill gaps in service for the area homeless, quickly expanded and became an official nonprofit last year. Along with the street outreach, they now do volunteer screening and training for emergency shelters and run a coordinated outreach hotline. Last year they partnered with an organization based in Portland called PERIOD., which was founded in 2014 and supplies feminine hygiene product kits to girls and women in need, to provide hundreds of tampons weekly throughout the Battle Ground school district. The most recent gap they’ve discovered and are working to fill allows Clark County homeless the opportunity to shower for free — the Shower Outreach Project (SOP). “When we learned the Share House downtown was eliminating showers we knew we had to do something,” DesRochers said. They first looked into seeing if a portable shower in Portland could make a routine