For food banks and organizations that provide food access and meal services, the holiday season is always a busy time of year. With the number of people experiencing hunger and food security rising dramatically due to the pandemic, the services of these organizations are more vital than ever this year.
Despite the outpouring of generosity from Seattle and King County residents, our region’s food banks continue to need donations. Here are a few ways you can support food access in the area this season:
Organize a Virtual Food Drive
With a little bit of time and digital savvy (we’re looking at you, teens and tweens on winter break) you can create your own, COVID-safe food/fund drive to help feed families in need. Organizations like Food Lifeline, Northwest Harvest, and others can offer you guidance on collecting non-perishable foods AND hosting online fund drives.
Donate Cash
If you don’t want to organize a drive, consider making a cash donation. Donating money may feel less personal but it has real benefits for food banks. Cash donations allow foodbanks to select exactly what they need and take advantage of bulk deals. Also, due to COVD-19, many food banks have fewer volunteers to sort food donations.
In addition to your local food banks, consider these three mutual aid organizations that are also seeking donations.
- Seattle BIPOC Organic Food Bank’s GoFundMe supports a new project to distribute harvests from a few BIPOC farms to families in Rainier Beach.
- Plant Based Food Share distributes healthy food boxes in South Seattle and South King County.
- Covid-19 Seattle King County Mutual Aid operates monthly pop-up food pantries in Burien, sourcing produce from local BIPOC farmers.
Donate Food
Check out this up-to-date map of organizations that provide food support to community members. Each has different needs and donation hours, so please check their website or call before dropping off supplies. They can tell you what they need most. If you’re donating from your own pantry, make sure the food is not expired.
Share the Abundance
Do you grow your own food? Our P-Patch Community Gardening Program recently updated its Sharing Abundance Tip Sheet, which provides basic information on how to make sharing homegrown food part of your regular activities.
We are all in this together. Help make the holidays a little bit brighter this year by helping support those experiencing hunger.
