The details of the Thursday, November 17 revenue forecast will be summarized by close of business on Friday, November 18.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

Looking outside today, there’s no denying that spring is upon us (cheers and applause). I don’t know about you, but I’m itching to get outside and start digging in the dirt, planting my first veggies and soaking up the long awaited sounds and smells of spring. If you feel the same, or if you’re just looking for a way to help end hunger in our community, join us at Lettuce Link’s Marra Farm on April 12^th from 4-6 pm for a couple hours…

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…

Growing up, I think Meals on Wheels was the first non-profit I had ever heard of. I was certainly the most memorable for me, and I can’t recall why. Perhaps it they had commercials on Saturday mornings as I watched cartoons at my grandparents house in Spokane WA, or perhaps it was just the catchy name. (I liked, and still do pretty much anything that has wheels.)

Then and now, Meals on Wheels just makes sense to me. Here in King County, they use…

Every year on Capitol Hill, more than 1,400 volunteers give their time to make hot meals for people who are homeless. The program, called Community Lunch served more than 30,000 meals last year.

A “Why the Fork” grant from United Way of King County will allow Community Lunch to hire a volunteer manager to recruit and organize the volunteers, install a new commercial refrigerator, and begin serving dinner three nights per week. Over the course of a year, this will mean 10,000 more meals…

As a 10 year employee of United Way of King County, I’ve been lucky to visit many of the agencies that do incredible work in our community. I’ve had the chance to meet and visit with the people who work very hard every day to help as many people as they can. When I think about the food banks I’ve visited, I recall lines of grateful people, thoughtful volunteers bustling about and stacks and stacks of food.

It takes a lot of work to run…

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

…

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…

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…

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…