About Our Board
Ballard Food Bank’s mission is to bring food and hope to our neighbors...because there can be enough for everyone. To achieve our mission, we provide access to nutritious foods through our unique grocery model food bank, financial resources, referral, and mail services that support self-sufficiency, and we advocate for food equity and justice. The Ballard Food Bank actively strives to be an anti-racist organization and promotes the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in its work. Our new home serves as a hub for hope as it brings together food, services, and community partners in a one-stop shop.
Our board of directors is critical to helping us fulfill an ambitious strategic plan that is centered on a commitment to racial and social justice. Our board is committed to our mission and our core values:
Access to food is a human right, as is access to housing, education, and healthcare. Lack of access to these fundamental rights is a direct result of systemic racism and other systemic injustices that lead to poverty.
Every individual is worthy of respect, and we value each person’s dignity, worth, and lived experience.
We commit to centering relationships and meeting people where they are in the moment.
We strive to create a welcoming, intentionally inclusive environment.
We seek to include perspectives, input, and guidance from the people we serve.
Healthy, culturally appropriate food is critical to our community’s wellbeing.
We are stewards of the land. We aim to minimize our environmental footprint, promote sustainability, and support local farmers and communities to grow their own food.
Our Vision and Strategic Priorities
Our vision is to be a community hub where individuals and families feel welcomed, valued, and have a sense of belonging. Through a client-centered approach we ensure that all neighbors have access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food, critical services and resources, and opportunities to amplify their voices so we build a strong, healthy community. Together, with our community of guests, volunteers, staff, and supporters, we are a Hub for Hope.
Our strategic priorities bring our mission, vision, and values to life as we work to serve the increased need in our community. Over the next five years our four strategic priorities are:
Increase organizational capacity to strengthen how we serve the growing needs of our community.
Strengthen sustainable access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food options.
Expand access to community hub programs that center community, enable self-sufficiency, and address systemic disparities.
Amplify advocacy efforts around our belief that access to food, housing, education, and healthcare are fundamental human rights. By addressing systemic racism and other systemic injustices we can create a more just community.
To achieve these, we must be engaged, adaptive, and prepared to embrace growth. We must also ensure that our strategies and tactics reflect our commitment to racial and social equity.
What We're Looking For
We seek to cultivate a board that reflects the rich diversity of our community. Applicants representing the diversity of our communities are encouraged to apply. People of color, people with disabilities, people with lived experience, and people of diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions and identities are encouraged to apply. We also encourage people at various stages of their career to apply, including early career applicants and retirees. We seek individuals who work to listen, be curious, vulnerable, and authentic in conversation. Ballard Food Bank practices Equity Matters’ Color Brave Space Norms.
At this time, we are looking for new board members who can help us do one or more of the following:
1. Expand board representation from people identifying as part of the following communities.
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)
LGBTQIA2S+
People with lived experience of food insecurity
People who have experience being unstably housed
Immigrant communities
Disability community
People with backgrounds in social service and physical and behavioral health
Local community leadership in King County, City of Seattle
People of all faiths and belief systems
2. Support Our Strategic Priorities
Help us advance Ballard Food Bank’s strategic priorities.
Experience helping lead organizations undergoing rapid growth
3. Bring a skill set that is needed on the board. Top skill priorities include:
Change management & organizational development
People and culture work
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Nonprofit experience
Finance
The Commitment
All candidates must demonstrate the capacity and commitment to be an ambassador for Ballard Food Bank and an engaged board member, with the ability and desire to participate in monthly board and committee meetings, make a financial contribution that is meaningful to them, raise the profile of the organization within their networks, and where possible, connect Ballard Food Bank to financial resources within these networks to support our mission.
Learn more in our board member role description.
Ballard Food Bank is not currently recruiting new board members but will update this page for future opportunities.