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A Hub for Hope
 

A Report To The Community

2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT

 
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Every day is an adventure at Ballard Food Bank, but hope is a constant.

I experience hope in our good-humored volunteers, dedicated staff, and delicious smells coming from the café. Hope is in the sight of our neighbors enjoying our beautiful, new building. 

It’s there when I see folks resting in the lobby, enjoying the art, music, and flowers. They plug in their phones and rest in comfortable chairs. Seeing this, I know we’ve achieved our goal of creating a welcoming, inclusive space where the sense of hope and belonging thrive.

Food Bank Volunteers Packing Food

My favorite story is of the client who – in one afternoon – accessed almost every service we offer! Stopping first at the Kindness Café, he filled up on warm soup, salad, and sandwich. Then he shopped for groceries in the market. Following that, his beloved dog received veterinary care from a partner agency, Seattle Veterinary Outreach. On his way out, he picked up his mail in our Community Resource Hub and Public Health provided him with a COVID vaccine. I love this! It illustrates how we’ve created a hub where folks easily connect and access food and services with dignity. Together, we created a one stop-shop, a Hub for Hope!

As we navigate today’s challenges - rising food costs, a continued shortage of affordable housing, a pandemic that keeps presenting us with new variants – I know we will be okay. We are truly neighbors helping neighbors. It takes strength to reach out for help. When you do so, and you’re met with respect and no judgement? That builds a stronger community. Thank you for continuing to support our mission through your gifts of time, food, and funds.

In community,

Jen Muzia, Executive Director

 
 
 
 

On October 18th, 2021, we opened the doors to our Hub for Hope. 

Thanks to the generosity of individuals, foundations, businesses, and organizations we were able to build our new home. 

The new building stands over 11,000 square feet and provides us with more capacity to serve our community.

6,000 people are accessing our services each month, with 12,000 connection touchpoints happening each month across our programs. 

 
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A story of hope

 
 

When Mindy’s (name changed to protect privacy) last paycheck came through, it was obvious that she had make a difficult choice – pay rent or buy groceries for next month.

Having passed by the Ballard Food Bank on several prior occasions, Mindy decided to pay a visit. Her hesitation vanished as she stepped through the doors.

Greeted by smiles, music and delicious smells from the Kindness Café, Mindy decided to eat a sandwich and some soup as she waited for her turn to shop in the community market. Looking around, she noticed the Resource Hub.

A sign told her that there was housing assistance available at the Hub today. So, after filling up her bags with fresh and healthy food, Mindy walked over to the Hub to talk to a service provider about a better housing solution. Ten minutes later, she walked out of the Ballard Food Bank. Even though her bags were heavy, the load on her shoulders felt light.

A rising cost of living drove Mindy to the food bank; feeling a sense of dignity keeps her coming back.

 
 
 
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COMMUNITY MARKET

Our market has been designed to look and function like a grocery store.

However, instead of money, smiles are exchanged. Our market carries everything from meat to produce to hygiene items.

We also strive to carry items that are long lasting, fresh, and healthy.

We intentionally offer foods that meet dietary and cultural needs, for example vegan, halal, kosher, vegetarian, gluten free etc. Anyone in Seattle is welcome to shop at this store. 

 
 
“I have a family of five. Two of them are teenagers. With the price of food rising every day, I knew I couldn’t feed my family, so, I came here. Ballard Food Bank has saved me thousands of dollars every month. My family would have been hungry otherwise.”
 
 
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Home Delivery

Many of our clients who are elderly, have a medical condition or physical disability, childcare constraints, or a COVID related concern that prevents them from shopping at the Food Bank can schedule home delivery.

Home delivery bags include nutritious fruits, vegetables, proteins, dairy, and other non-perishable items that are available at the Food Bank. To the best of our ability, we work with our clients to accommodate their dietary needs and preferences.

 
At the height of the pandemic, we delivered food to 900 households each week.
We serve 5600 households per month via our community market and home delivery program
 


Since opening the doors of our new home, many folks are coming in to shop instead. Currently, we deliver to 500 households each week across 8 zip codes in Northwest Seattle.

 
 

KINDNESS CAFÉ

We offer healthy and delicious hot meals at the free Kindness Café, where everyone is welcome. This beautiful and functional space, named after a beloved member of our Board of Directors, David O’Neal, has been incredibly well-received by our community.

 

A team of volunteers, led by a new Cafe Manager, feed about 300-400 folks a day, equating to 4,000 meals each month. Offerings include homemade soup, salads, sandwiches, and coffee.

These made-from-scratch meals, sourced from food in our market with fresh produce from our garden, have become an important part of the day for hundreds of food-insecure Seattleites.

The Kindness cafe serves around 4,000 meals each month
 
“But it’s a reminder, at least for me each day, that by doing some of the little things with a little care, and a little concern and some compassion, you’re often amazed at the impact that you’re having on the life of another person.”
— Anthony Anderson, Director of Operations

“Probably the best story I have from the first week in the new building has to do with butternut squash soup. We had two whole bins of butternut squash in the market. There was a woman who was in the grocery store when I was going through, and she was looking at the butternut squash. And I said, we have some soup in the cafe once you're finished shopping. If you come by, we can give you something you can take it with you. And she did. And then she came back the next day - not to shop, but to have the soup again. Then, she asked me for the recipe. I took some time out and wrote the recipe down. To my amazement, about a week later, she brought in a little sample, for me to taste. The soup was exceptional. It was one of those things that I could not have planned or anticipated in any way. But it's a reminder, at least for me each day, that by doing some of the little things with a little care, and a little concern and some compassion, you're often amazed at the impact that you're having on the life of another person.”

– Anthony Anderson, Director of Operations

 
“The only thing better than the food was the way I was treated…like I was in a 4-star restaurant.”
 
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Volunteers at the community resource hub
 
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Resource hub

The Community Resource Hub is behind the welcome desk in the lobby.

With a larger space and an increased number of private offices, we can offer more opportunities for other social service providers to offer onsite services for our clients. We also offer our own financial assistance program for rent and utilities and distributed $300,000 through this program. This helps prevent homelessness by keeping people in their homes whenever possible.

We regularly survey our clients to learn what types of services and organizations would be helpful for them to access here, in a one-stop shop.

We currently have sixteen agencies as part of a rotating schedule of providers, with more partnerships in process.

These agencies provide a wide range of services from counseling and housing support for our LGBTQ+ clients to providing reduced transit fare cards for Veterans.

Our 16 service providers are listed as below

 

Clothing Mending

Denise Louie Child & Family Services

Eligibility Specialist

Harm Reduction Services

King County Mobile Medical Clinic

Molina Health

Neighborcare

Peer Seattle

Seattle Veterinary Outreach

Polyclinic Enrollment

Swedish Ballard Family Medicine

United Healthcare

King County Vaccine Clinic

Washington State Vaccine Clinic

Solid Ground Housing Intake Assessment

ORCA Lift

Federal Veterans Administration

 

As our Community Resource Hub staff members get to know our community members, they regularly refer and connect folks to over 18 other social service agencies as well, such as:

 

Bridge Care Center

Byrd Barr Place

Catholic Community Services

Hopelink

North Seattle Helpline

Queen Anne Helpline

United Church Fund

Saint Vincent de Paul

Salvation Army

Wellspring Family Services

Aurora Commons

Jubilee Women’s Center

Neighborhood legal clinic

Uplift Northwest

DSHS

Dignity for Divas

 
 

We also have computers, phones, and private spaces for use.

We offer a mailing address for our clients who don’t have a permanent residence. Folks can drop in and receive their packages here as well.

600 people currently make use of our mail room.

 
We are on track to provide resources, community referrals, and assistance to 2,000 people this year.
 
 
“It feels like a plug-and-play every time we walk in here. You make it easy – you have flyers for us, you are cordial to our clients, and we love the space. It is so helpful to have the option of client confidentiality which is important to our clients. You make my job easy, and the staff goes above and beyond to make it easy for us to help the community. It feels like it truly works in partnership. I love to see all the community partners here in the hub – we can connect our clients to more resources.”
— Jennifer Adams with the SCOFFLAW mitigation (Vehicle Resident Outreach)
 
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Weekend For Kids

This program is available to any child enrolled in one of the 20 Seattle Public Schools in our service area. The bags are intended to ensure that children who rely on food at school have food on weekends.

Participation in Weekend Food for Kids is confidential.

School staff, teachers, and family members identify students who would benefit from weekend meals. Each week the Food Bank provides partner schools with the food. School personnel or volunteers then discreetly distribute bags of food to students on Thursday or Fridays.

What’s included in a bag: 3 dinners, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and snacks.

 
 

450 students receive the Weekend Food For Kids bags, which translates to 13,320 meals every month, that is worth $18,000 a month.

Each bag weighs about 8lbs. Each month we provide 14,400 lbs of food for the program.

Picture credits: Alan Alabastro

 
“Thank you for providing dietary options (vegan options). Our families really value having that option.”
— Cascade Elementary
 
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Our Executive Director Jen Muzia is deeply involved in the local and regional coalitions and advocacy networks working to transform social service programs and change systems.

This work includes but is not limited to:

  • Seattle Food Committee – Jen is currently on the executive committee, along with Director of Programs, Kathleen. Jen and Kathleen work alongside other food banks to share best practices, purchase food and advocacy. This year, Jen worked with other food banks and food distributors (including Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline) to advocate for better quality government commodities, among other activities. Jen has served as the Seattle Food Committee representative to the Seattle Human Services Coalition for seven years.

  • Seattle Human Services Coalition (SHSC) – Jen was recently voted in as co-chair of the Seattle Human Services Coalition. This group comes together to plan and implement advocacy on a variety of topics including gender-based violence, challenges facing young people, food banks, and more. SHSC works on city-level advocacy.

    • Wage Equity Coalition – Jen is also involved in this sub-committee of the SHSC and advocated for city funds to conduct a wage/work study comparing public and private sector salaries and wage inequities.

 Financials

In the 2021-22 fiscal year, through the generosity of our community, we were able to increase our spending budget for food to $850,000 and financial assistance to $300,000 for a total of $1,150,000. In 2022-23 we are increasing our food and financial assistance budget to $1,900,000 with investments in food purchasing for our free community market, Kindness Café, Weekend Food For Kids programs and financial assistance. With the dramatic growth in community need due to the long-term impacts of the pandemic, plus inflation, these strategic investments will directly impact food insecurity and homelessness prevention for our neighbors throughout Seattle. In 2022-23 we will also continue to build our capacity by expanding our staffing to provide more access to food and services, as well as committing to wage equity for all our staff.

For any questions, please contact Colleen Martinson at colleenm@ballardfoodbank.org.

 
“I like working at the food bank for a multitude of reasons, my colleagues, the feeling of working towards goodness for a community, the flexibility of my schedule, and the office dogs.

I feel very valued at the food bank, and my time and mental health is honored.”
— Staff Member
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 To read our 2020 Annual Report, please click here.