Today, I am moving on. After three years working in the Brand department at United Way of King County, I’m saying my farewells.

My first encounter with United Way of King County was in the late ’90s. I was working as a copywriter at Nordstrom, and the fall campaign season was kicking off.  There was an event called “Day of Caring,” and coworkers were signing up. The more I heard, the more I wanted to join in. It sounded like an amazing thing–and it…

As you may have heard, United Way of King County’s Day of Caring is the single largest day of volunteering in Washington State, and this year we anticipate over 10,000 people will spend the day volunteering with local organizations. That’s huge! Already, 9,000 people have signed up to volunteer all over King County, including groups from Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AT&T and many more. Use the search box on the map below to see where your favorite local company will…

On May 25, 2011, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a competitive $500 million dollar state-level grant to the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge. The Race to the Top challenge focuses on the improvement of early learning and development programs for young disadvantaged children. “For kids, high quality early learning programs mean they will enter school better prepared with a greater chance of finishing high school and college,” said Vice President Joe Biden,…

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…

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

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