Jun 12, 2006 10:21 AM, from staff and wire reports

There's a big green truck rolling through eastern Washington and northern Idaho that's really cool--literally! Dubbed the Thrivent Homegrown Help Truck, the 24-foot refrigerated vehicle is the newest addition to Second Harvest Inland Northwest's food distribution fleet.

The $85,000 vehicle is a gift from the Northern Rocky Regional Financial Office of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and its more than 50,000 members in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, and eastern Oregon. It will distribute an estimated 550,000 to 750,000 pounds of produce during its first year of operation and millions of dollars of produce during its estimated lifetime.

Second Harvest annually distributes more than 15 million pounds of food to more than 300 charitable programs in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. The Thrivent Homegrown Help Truck is designed to meet the increasing demand for fresh produce.

The truck, which holds 7,000 to 10,000 pounds of food, will provide the means of delivering the produce, and local Thrivent chapters in the Northwest will help provide the volunteer labor.