Claire Thomas will never forget the first Farms for Life delivery she made to YouthCare, a nonprofit that helps homeless youth.

“We unloaded the van and all of a sudden these kids started coming outside,” she recalled. “They were so excited…all over fresh produce.”

Claire founded Farms for Life in 2010. It’s a volunteer group that buys fresh produce at a discount from local farms and then delivers it to nonprofits serving vulnerable people throughout Seattle and King County. Last year, Farms for…

Emigdio Ramos is a walking miracle.

He survived life-threatening injuries during the Vietnam War and has a home today in the Pike Place Market’s low-income housing.

“I’m 70 years old, and I’ve never been old before,” Emigdio said with a laugh. “This is a first for me. There are a lot of things I used to do that I can’t do anymore.”

Emigdio is one of the 1,000 people who are served by the Downtown Food Bank every week.

“I get a lot of…

Diana is a single mom with three kids. She was laid off from her job and had a hard time making ends meet.

“There have been times when our cupboards have been pretty darn empty,” she said.

Fortunately, she was able to get assistance at her neighborhood food bank.

“It’s given us plenty of dinners,” Diana said. “This really has been a godsend for our family.”

Food Lifeline, the largest hunger relief organization in Washington state, helps thousands of people like Diana every day.…

Chicken Soup Brigade was formed in the early 1980’s by a group of volunteers who were determined to regularly bring good food and a friendly face to people struggling with HIV and AIDS. Nearly 30 years later, the program — now run by Lifelong AIDS Alliance — remains committed to helping meet the nutritional and social needs of people fighting illness and isolation.  

In 2005, Chicken Soup Brigade expanded its meal and nutrition counseling services to include people living with other disabling…

For the past two weeks, giant forks have invaded the Seattle area–showing up at landmarks, restaurants, public parks, IKEA and even a Sounders soccer match.

Teams of enthusiastic people stood on overpasses waving the oversized forks and holding signs that simply read, “whythefork.org.”

And a @whythefork account on Twitter started posting tweets on everything from the history to cutlery to videos of fork lift stunts gone wrong.

What was this all about?

As KOMO News revealed, the answer to “Why the fork?” is:…

We’ve wrapped up Hunger Action Week, five days dedicated to raising awareness about hunger in our community.

So now what?

It’s time to take action. There are many ways you can get involved, and we’re sure that you can come up some creative ideas too. Here’s what Mary Shaw, one of our staff members at United Way of King County, said she chose to do.

“I thought I could get involved by doing a virtual hunger awareness lunch. OK, I guess I am not

…

I’ve gotten many questions from people about the $7 a day allotment for the Hunger Challenge and why a two-person household gets $12 and not $14, etc. etc.

I’m no expert on Washington’s Basic Food Program (what we call food stamps in this state), but Liz Jaquette at the nonprofit WithinReach is. So I gave Liz a call and got a brief, but illuminating, education on food stamps. Here’s what I learned.

$7 a day is the MAXIMUM benefit for a single…

Note: On day 4 of Hunger Action Week, I received this tweet about the Hunger Challenge: “@UnitedWayKC a bunch of anoretic bloggers eat beans 4 wk & then write how mean poor people are in response. this helps strving families HOW?” I thought for a awhile about how I should respond. Then I wrote, “What is about the Hunger Challenge that makes you angry?” and invited the person to send me an e-mail fully explaining her position. Her name is Marisa Miller and this is…

Note: I saw a tweet from Larissa Long that said, “As a former single mom of low income, I’m a bit offended by #HungerChallenge posts w/ complaints about giving up lattes & organic food.” I responded, and after chatting for a bit, I invited Larissa to share her viewpoint on our blog. Here is her guest post.

I couldn’t pay my bills. I was a single mother of two children, one with a disability. I longed to qualify for food stamps.

That was…

On day 2 of Hunger Action Week, Publicola’s Erica Barnett wrote an opinion piece that called the Hunger Challenge an insensitive and distasteful exercise in “poverty tourism.” She writes:

“There’s something off-putting about watching privileged people play at being poor, and it isn’t just that their complaints amount to whining about five days without $12-a-pound coffee and $9 sandwiches from the Dahlia Lounge. It’s that ‘living on food stamps’ isn’t the same as actually being poor. People in poverty lack many advantages besides the

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