2013 SFC Van Tour!

Sabrina Jones, Program Assistant for Food Resources with Solid Ground, helped organize and plan the 2013 Van Tour

The 2013 Seattle Food Committee Van Tour on Monday, August 12 was attended by over 40 people, with participants from food banks, meal programs, and food distribution sites! This annual event serves as an opportunity for meal programs and food banks to come together, network, and get a behind-the-scenes look at a few emergency food programs in Seattle. All meal programs and food banks have their own way of operating under their unique circumstances, whether it be small spaces, language barriers, no parking, or little storage space.  The Van Tour allows participants to observe these operations and pick up best practices that may just help the whole system run a little better.

Kate-HIP

This year's tour started at the Hunger Intervention Program (HIP). HIP serves approximately 7,000 meals during the year. The program has only one full-time staff member and one AmeriCorps member. With the help of dedicated volunteers, approximately 60 each month, HIP teaches nutrition education, serves Healthy HIP Packs to three schools, and operates a meal program.  They eventually hope to double their HIP Packs program, which delivers weekend meals to students at school.

Fundraising has become focus for HIP, as they have few income sources.  HIP receives grants for its backpack program, but it also relies on individual donors for other income. Most of the food for its programs come from Food Lifeline, Northwest Harvest, and individual food drives. By focusing more attention to fundraising, Kate hopes to expand HIP's programs and provide an additional layer of stability for the organization.

Sam-Executive Director of RVFB

The Rainier Valley Food Bank was the site of our second stop.  This incredibly busy food bank serves about 13,000 people a month and has tripled its annual budget since 2008.  The food bank has been open for 22 years and has outgrown its current space. Without a proper driveway for deliveries, drivers must park on Rainier Avenue and then move pallets into the food bank. These deliveries also happen on distribution days, which adds to an already hectic situation.  A new space, built to serve a food bank, would hopefully make life easier for food bank staff, delivery drivers, and clients.

The Rainier Valley Food Bank recently started using Salesforce, a CRM that allows them to better track clients, volunteers, and donations.  Client cards given out during a client's first visit help volunteers to quickly check in guests. Clients keep this card and present it when they arrive at the food bank.  Volunteers are able to quickly look up the client, document their visit, and provide them with a sticker to let other volunteers know the quantity of items to provide them with.  Even with this well honed system, volunteers are trained in communication styles to de-escalate chaotic situations that may arise during distribution.

Farmer Scott

The Seattle Community Farm is a program of Lettuce Link within Solid Ground. Farmer Scott, the only staff member at the farm, showed participants around after they enjoyed a delicious lunch in the sun. The all-organic farm produced over 9,500 pounds of food last year, which was triple what it produced during its first year growing season.  The produce grown at the farm is based on the needs and wants of food bank clients and includes tasty treats such as beets, carrots, squash, tomatoes, and beans.

Almost all of the produce grown at the Seattle Community Farm goes to the Rainier Valley Food Bank.  Food bank clients are able to receive healthy, organic produce that wouldn't otherwise make it into their kitchens.  The farm and food bank believe that everyone should be able to eat healthy, pesticide-free food, not just the wealthy. The produce from the farm also goes to some work-trade volunteers.  Volunteers offer their time to help maintain the farm and harvest, and in return they are able to take home a giant bag of fresh produce.  This mutual beneficial relationship allows the farm to operate at a low-cost, provides learning volunteer opportunities, and allows volunteers to enjoy the fruit (vegetables) of their labor!

Carla-SIC Food Bank Manager

After visiting the Seattle Community Farm, the van took the group to the Seattle Indian Center (SIC).  SIC is the First American Indian/Alaska Native Human Services Agency in King County and offers an array of human services.  During our visit we saw the food bank, the kitchen that prepares community meals, and their men's hostel.  It was amazing to see their space and hear how the programs make it work.

SIC's Community Meal program serves over 200 meals a day.  They serve both breakfast and lunch.  Meals are made from scratch and Chef Edwin aims to serve clients only healthy, fresh food. Their food bank, which is open Tuesday and Thursday, has no restrictions on who they serve. They work diligently to serve clients culturally relevant food such as tofu, and try to always have a protein item on the line.  One challenge the food bank has is limited funds to purchase items such as tofu or protein, as these items are hard to get donated.  However, the food bank makes do with what they have and serve everyone.  Sometimes they even run out of food.  

Our last stop on the Van Tour was the University District Food Bank. The University District Food Bank is open Monday through Friday for a total of 25 hours, with two sets of evening hours for clients.  The food bank was started 30 years ago and has operated out of the same space for all of that time.  Space for the food bank, in particular perishable space, has proven to be one of its most challenging elements.  In fact, the food bank is currently undergoing a capital campaign for a new location.  The new location will have the food bank on the first floor, low-incoming housing on the top floors, and a roof-top community garden.

Joe-Executive Director of UDFB

The University District Food Bank runs an impressive operation.  With 85-100 volunteers per week, three full-time staff, and two part-time staff, the food bank serves over 4,000 households each month, has a home delivery program that serves approximately 30 people, and delivers food for 175 children a week to four Seattle schools.  The food bank operates under a grocery shopping model, which allows guests to walk around with carts and select the items they want (with quantity of items decided by family size).  This specialized approach to food banking allows clients to feel more like customers than clients at a food bank.

University District Food Bank Fundraiser

News from the University District Food Bank:

I’m excited to announce Food Truck Roundup!, an event celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the University District Food Bank and official kickoff of our Capital Campaign, Fight Hunger build hope, to construct a new facility.

 

In 1983 the food bank provided food to 50 families a month. Today on average we distribute groceries to 1100 different families a week in the same 800 square foot facility. It’s time for a change! Fight Hunger build hope is a three year $2.75 million project to greatly expand our distribution and storage capacity and enhance our ability to provide nutritious meals to families in need.

 

We've already raised $1.75 million! The Food Truck Roundup! is a great opportunity for you to find out more about our capital campaign and have a great time. Event details below: 

 

What: Food Truck Roundup!, Fight Hunger build hope Capital Campaign Kickoff Party

 

Where: Phinney Neighborhood Community Center, 6532 Phinney Ave N.

 

When: Sunday, May 19th from 3-7 PM

 

Tickets: $25 per person which includes eight food tastes and four drink tastes. Buy tickets here! Note: to comply with state law, this event is only open to those ages 21 and over.

 

Event Features: 

•  Tastes from some of Seattle’s most creative and innovative food truck chefs including Skillet Street Food, Barking Frog’s Mobile Kitchen, Contigo, Crisp Creperie, Chopstix, Veraci Pizza, Hallava Falafel, Street Treats, Seattle Biscuit Company, and more! 
• Beer, wine and spirit tastings from several of Seattle’s finest local beverage purveyors including Oola Distillery, Golden Distillery, Sozo Wines and Fremont Brewing Company 
• Live music and entertainment featuring Blackberry Bushes, Washover Fans and Ali Marcus



Packs for Kids

Jessica Wright, Home Delivery Coordinator for the University District Food Bank, reflects on the evolution of their Packs for Kids program.

The 2011-2012 academic year was University District Food Bank’s first time partnering with Eckstein Middle School to provide backpacks of weekend food to students in need. By the time summer arrived, we had many parent volunteers helping pack up food to approximately 35 students each week.  Even with the initial success of the program, we wondered if these middle school students had hungry siblings. We all were pretty sure that they probably did. Thanks to some of the Eckstein volunteers’ help, we were able to connect with some of the elementary schools in our service area and introduce the idea of sending weekend food home with some of their students. Now we are beginning a new school year with Eckstein and a few of these additional elementary schools, committed to making sure these children are able to grow into healthy and successful young adults.

We want food going home in backpacks to meet three qualifications: 1) be nutritious and support growth, 2) be easy enough to prepare for the students to safely do themselves, and 3) be culturally appropriate and desirable to eat. Figuring out what to put in each backpack that met these three goals was a process of trial and error throughout the year. It will continue to be so this year as we serve new students and keep serving some of the same students who received similar items last year. It was a surprise to find out after a couple months of distributing backpacks that peanut butter and jelly was not something that most of our Eckstein students wanted to receive. Was it only me that packed a PB&J sandwich for lunch every day from Kindergarten through 10th grade?

As we add elementary students to our program this year, we’ll have to take another look at what these younger students are capable of preparing for themselves and how much they’re able to carry home. Opening up a can of soup, pouring it into a bowl, and microwaving it for the amount of time it says on the can’s instructions are reasonable expectations for an 11-13 year old student, but not necessarily for the younger and wider age range we’ll serve at the elementary schools. I also had to remind myself many times in the last few weeks that the successful model we have at Eckstein Middle School is not to be used as a cookie cutter for programs we begin in other schools. Each school will have their own set of needs. While it feels good to have a year of the program in our experience file, I expect that this school year will provide many more unique circumstances to work through.

From the beginning of our working relationship with the Eckstein Middle School PTSA, I was impressed with their energy and compassion for hungry students. Groups at the elementary schools are stepping up and showing enthusiasm too. These parents are concerned with the well-being of not only their children, but their children’s classmates as well. There are signs of increased numbers in the Eckstein program, and as we branch out to local elementary schools I have hope that we will be able to help out a lot of families that are under a large amount of stress just trying to make ends meet. Giving these students healthy food that they can easily take home and safely prepare for themselves is a challenge. Succeeding, however, results in healthier and more focused students ready to learn when they get to school on Monday morning.