Imagine trying to serve meals to the most vulnerable Washingtonians with an all volunteer staff and a kitchen that has long passed time for an upgrade.  The recession has meant that you’ve an increase in need and you and your fellow volunteers are serving 22% more meals than you ever have.  You are projecting a 15% increase in need over the next year and the City of Issaquah has asked your program to become part of the emergency response network.

What are you going to…

I love the “Why the Fork” campaign because it is giving organizations like the Somali Youth and Family Club an opportunity to educate us about the needs of the communities that they serve.

Like this: Do you know how large the gap between SNAP and Basic Food benefits and he price of Halal food is?  It’s big enough that most low-income Muslim families have exhausted their benefits by mid-month.  Compounding this problem is a Food Bank system that does not have the resources to receive…

Our friends at Lifelong AIDS Alliance have ensured that people fighting illness and isolation won’t go hungry for nearly 30 years with the Chicken Soup Brigade.  It’s the only program in the Pacific Northwest that gets nutritional food to our housebound neighbors with life threatening illnesses.  We’re working with them to raise money for a new van!

You can help us go a step further and Dine Out for Life.  On Thursday,…

The Hunger Challenge is coming to a close.  It has been a lively week and a lot of lessons have been learned.  We’ve had discussions, but the Challenge and Hunger Action Week will be a failure if we don’t keep working to end hunger.  Hunger Action Week may be “over,” but the fight isn’t.

Let’s make sure that we take the lessons from the week, bottle the conversations that we had, and spread the word.  Food banks still need volunteers and donors.  Legislators still need…

Hunger Action Week is in its last day.  It has been a great week.  There are a lot of people taking the Hunger Challenge and writing about it and even more joining the discussion.  The Hunger Challenge has certainly been the most public part of HAW, but there is so much more going on.  People are helping United Way and our partners by donating to support improvements to food banks, additional trucks for meals delivery programs, and bringing the farm to food banks.  It’s exhilarating…

As we come to end of day four, this has been the most interesting Hunger Challenge to date.  It has sparked criticism and debate and made us examine what the Challenge is and what it should be.  While some of the discussion has been difficult, I am heartened that so many people care so passionately about hunger in this country.  It tells me that we can come together and we can sustain this movement to end hunger in our community.

The United Way created…

Hunger Action Week and the Hunger Challenge have certainly captured attention in Seattle and King County.  Hundreds of people are taking the Challenge and sharing their experiences.  There has been push back as well.  There were some tweets about free food being offered at a Panda Express on the east side and a few participants may have partaken of the free fast food.  The Challenge has been called “poverty tourism” and “not like real life”.  Of course it’s not real life.  And this is…

“I’m going to have a drink of water. I hope I don’t have to pay for it!” – CJ, Magnolia Prep

Day one of the Hunger Challenge is about adjustment and will.  Adjustment to the lack of whatever constitutes your “one of these and I blow my budget” guilty pleasure.  The will is not to cheat and indulge in said guilty pleasure because, “who would know?”  This morning I woke up to blue skies and, in a bit of serendipity, Mr. Blue Sky by E.L.O.…

Hunger Action Week is here!  For many in Seattle and King County, that means taking the Hunger Challenge.  For others, that means volunteering at a local food bank, contacting their legislators, and donating to local efforts to end hunger in our community.  There is one goal for all of this – ending hunger in our communities.  We can do it, if we all come together.

It’s a timely start for Hunger Action Week.  “Policy Affects Policy“, a report about public assistance programs like…