Exactly a month today, we here at United Way of King County wrapped up our 11th season of the Free Tax Campaign!

If you don’t know, the Free Tax Campaign is a volunteer program which provides free tax preparation for low-income families and individuals in King County.  Along with tax prep, our volunteers also connect people to valuable asset-building services such as helping them apply for public benefits, pulling credit reports, applying for the FAFSA, and a number of additional…

The Legislature is scheduled to conclude its regular legislative session this Sunday, April 28, but because it has been unable to complete all of its business to date, Governor Inslee is expected to call it back for one or more Special Sessions, most likely after a short break.  At this point, there is a $900 million divide between the Democratic House budget and the Majority Coalition Senate budget resulting from the House support for closing tax breaks and extending certain taxes in order to support K-12…

This was prepared by Amnon Shoenfeld, Director of King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division, DCHS

The House, Senate and Governor’s budgets all book savings from Medicaid expansion based upon numbers of new people enrolled in Medicaid and savings to the system resulting from integration of medical, mental health, prevention services resulting in less costly outpatient visits.  These savings assumptions, however, may prove inaccurate for several reasons.

Mental Health

The Governor’s budget and the House and Senate budgets assume that the…

Governor Inslee released his budget priorities for “Working Washington” on March 28, the state Senate released their biennial budget on April 3, and the House released its budget on April 11.  The budgets differ significantly in support for housing and human services but have overlap in education.  With all budgets formally released, active negotiation among the three parties now begins on the FY 2013-15 biennial budget.

All three budgets emphasize education including some early learning but deal with housing and basic needs differently.  The Governor proposes…

Every summer, kids get out of school and look forward to months of sun and fun. But many also face months of hunger, since they don’t have access to school meals in the summer. Luckily there is the summer meals program which offers healthy meals to kids 18 and younger. Here’s the rub, we need to get this message out to kids and families who don’t know about the program. We’ll be going to schools and community events…

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During the summer, children who eat meals through the free and reduced meal program at school do not have access to this service. The Summer Meals feeding program was set up to meet this need. The Summer Meals program is already feeding lots of kids, but it could feed even more with your help. Read more for some ideas on how you can get involved.

Host a Site

Do you know of a group of people that would like to host a site? Church groups,…

It is our last day taking the Food Stamp Challenge, and it’s amazing how much this experience has raised our awareness and changed perceptions about food on many levels.  It’s been a difficult week, and while I know that the whole family is excited for me to go and do our ‘normal’ grocery shopping trip tomorrow, there are several things we will all take from this going forward.

One thing that became very clear through our experience participating in Hunger Action Week was…

Guest blogger and United Way of King County Campaign Co-Chairs Dan & Annie Wilson share with us their Food Stamp challenge experiences this week – Day 4.

So – the kids are kind of in the routine of Hunger Action Week now. I made pancakes for breakfast today from the huge package of mix we were able to buy at the beginning of the week. That brought smiles for sure and it really felt good to be able to say “Yes, there’s plenty more…

There has been a lot of discussion around the role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in alleviating hunger, but fortunately, it is not the only program or option available to help those struggling with hunger.  Nationwide, aside from SNAP, there are various programs that help folks get more to eat, including Summer and At-Risk Afterschool Meals programs through USDA; the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; and the Free or Reduced Lunch Program that is offered in schools across the country.  Locally, we…