KING 5 traffic reporter Tracy Taylor has been participating in the Hunger Challenge, and in her video blog today, she says that she’s getting a lot of flack on Twitter for complaining about not being able to buy coffee and playing at being poor.

“Poverty is a serious thing. It really does happen everywhere,” she says. “It could be your neighbor. It could be your co-worker. It could be maybe your little boy or little girl’s friend who lives down the street.”

“Seven dollars a

…

During March 21-25, people across King County will be taking the Hunger Challenge as part of United Way’s Hunger Action Week. They will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner spending only $7 a day to get a sense of what people who rely on food stamps experience.

This challenge is an exercise of empathy—to live in someone else’s shoes for one week and learn how you can help fight hunger in our community.

Anyone who has ever lived on a tight budget knows…

Being a United Way campaign coordinator can be a lot of work. But it can also be a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.

We proudly celebrated four outstanding campaign coordinators at our Spirit of Caring Celebration on March 8.

Here are some of the ways these four superstars went above and beyond to ensure their campaign’s success.

They made the ask—no matter what! Jessie Beltran and her campaign…

At the Spirit of Caring Celebration on March 8, United Way of King County recognized Weyerhaeuser’s Making WAVES program as the 2011 Outstanding Employee Volunteer Program.

The award recognizes Weyerhaeuser’s strong commitment to volunteerism, and its effort so encourage and reward their employees for making a difference through volunteering.

Weyerhaeuser’s special volunteer program, Making WAVES, supports the charitable work of employees. To participate, employees identify a need in their community and work with a nonprofit or school to develop a project. Weyerhaeuser…

At the Spirit of Caring Celebration on March 8, we honored Dr. Sandra Madrid as Ambassador of the Year for her exceptional dedication as an advocate for United Way of King County.

For the last 15 years Sandra has demonstrated her commitment to United Way’s mission. She has done everything from chairing United Way’s board to leading the Volunteerism Task Force.

She can best be described as “positive energy.”

This past fall, Sandra played a major role in a fundraising event…

We were proud to honor Evelyn Lemoine as our 2011 Volunteer of the Year at our Spirit of Caring Celebration on March 8.

Evelyn has been a dedicated United Way volunteer, donor and advocate for many years.

In 2004 Evelyn stepped up to serve as one of United Way’s inaugural impact council chairs. She led the Children Youth & Families Impact Council and then the Early Learning Impact Council for four years and she remains an active member to this day.…

United Way of King County awarded AT&T the Spirit of Puget Sound Award—our top honor for corporate philanthropy—at the Spirit of Caring Celebration on March 8.

The Spirit of Puget Sound Award honors outstanding community involvement, sustained campaign excellence, and the promotion of volunteerism.

Here are just a few reasons why we presented AT&T with this prestigious honor:

…

I spent Friday at the Tech for Good Leadership Summit presented by the Microsoft Community Affairs team and NPower Seattle. Any kind of conference can be hit-or-miss in terms of value, but I’m happy to say that I walked away with lots of good knowledge that I will actually be able to use.

Here are some of my favorite things from the day:

…

As the temperature drops and snow continues to fall, severe weather shelters in South and East King County are opening.

BELLEVUE

Dates open:
Monday, Jan. 10; Tuesday, Jan. 11

Location:
Crossroads Community Center
16000 NE 10th St.
Bellevue, WA 98008

Details:
Doors for the severe weather shelter will open at 8:30 p.m. Clients must register at the door. As with all shelters, rules for the health and safety of all clients and staff and the broader community…

In a guest Seattle Times editorial, United Way of King County CEO, Jon Fine, and Board Chair, Dan Fulton, “see a community brimming with creativity about how to make things better for those who are struggling” and call on people to resolve to do what they can to help their neighbors in need. Read the full editorial.