Spare a thought this Thanksgiving weekend to Issaquah Hatchery salmon — not only do they give the community a sense of identity and draw visitors, but they’re also helping fill a critical need in food banks across the state.

Under a state program directed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), salmon hatcheries are supplying them with fish that are deemed surplus. They donated over 437,000 pounds of salmon filets to over 300 food banks in every county statewide last year.

The free meat helps providers such as food bank distributor Northwest Harvest offer enough protein — the most expensive form of food to produce — to fulfill their mission of giving a nutritious meal to those who need it.

Northwest Harvest Executive Director Shelley Rotondo, under increased pressure since demand for donations has spiked during the recession, said the salmon was a godsend since they are very limited in their access to protein-rich food – of the food products they distribute, usually only a quarter are good sources of protein.

Since donations rarely include that food source, she said Northwest Harvest must buy the difference — usually turkey meat. The hatchery salmon helps keep Northwest Harvest’s costs down.

“It’s a tremendous source of protein,” she said. “When you’re dealing with a population that has a high propensity of heart disease, obesity and hypertension, this is an excellent food source. We are really pleased to offer this food.”

The salmon are a public resource managed by the state, and the hatcheries are intended to help restore a sustainable number of salmon and native fish stocks in the face of commercial fishing and environmental degradation.

But none of the salmon taken at the hatchery is commercially available at the supermarket.

The preference of fishermen, and diners, is that the shorter the journey taken of coho and chinook salmon migrating home, the better. Once the salmon return to freshwater streams and estuaries, the fish stop eating and survive off their reserve body fat, which provides much of the prized flavor of salmon.

So what to do with the extra salmon that return to the hatchery?

The lower Omega-3 fatty acid content and the battering the salmon suffer — resulting in discoloration of the meat — doesn’t mean the fish is unpalatable or unhealthful, said DFW Hatchery reform coordinator Andy Appleby.

“I can tell you as a fisherman myself, personally, that those fish are perfectly good for eating,” he said.

The DWF is contracted with Bellingham seafood company American Canadian Fisheries to process the salmon killed for their eggs or deemed in excess of the number allowed to swim upstream to naturally spawn.

According to Issaquah Hatchery Manager Darin Combs, without the partnership the state would be left with the less preferable option of disposing of the carcasses, most likely dumping them in a landfill.

Nearly 5,000 fish were taken from Issaquah for processing this year, in addition to the 2,100 carcasses left over from hatchery egg harvesting. American Canadian owner Andy Vitaljic said that of those 5,000 surplus salmon taken by his company, a majority are filleted, boned and skinned and flash frozen — all to prepare them for human consumption through the food donation program.

“We are tremendously proud of our organization,” he said. “That fish fed near a million people last year.”

The fillets of salmon are also subject to USDA HACCP guidelines – to ensure the food is at least safe to eat.

The rest of the fish and the fish carcasses are used in several of the company’s for-profit products, such as pet food, fish bait and fertilizer. American Canadian also supplies the state criminal justice system and prisons.

The excess hatchery salmon is good business for Vitaljic, whose company also contracts with dozens of other hatcheries across Washington, Oregon and California. He’s on track to take in over 300,000 pounds of Washington salmon this year and plans to try something different in processing the salmon this year, making it easier for food banks to serve: salmon burgers.

Ironically, little if any of the harvested salmon makes its way back here for Issaquah’s own social services needs. Issaquah Valley Community Services Director Cherie Meier said the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank, which she helps run, once accepted a donation of about 30 frozen, unprocessed hatchery fish about eight or nine years ago but soon regretted it.

The amount of work and odor from the fish soon became overwhelming for the volunteers and they turned away subsequent donations of unprocessed fish.

“Once in a while we’ll get a little bit of the salmon in fillets,” she said.

The program of donating the state’s fish was was started by Jim Coates, Director of the Pacific County Food Bank Distribution Center under an agreement signed by then-Gov. Booth Gardner in 1991.