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Read Our Summer Newsletter
Keep up with the latest happenings at the food bank. Read the Summer 2019 West Seattle Food Bank newsletter!
The boy scouts and cub scouts of West Seattle delivered their Scouting for Food donations on March 26th. This year, they collected 4,047 lbs. of food & $1,712 for the food bank! Most of the scouts dropped bags off on the doorsteps of their neighborhood and picked them up again a week later, collecting it all to deliver to the food bank. Pack 282 did a food & funds drive on the Saturday of the event at West Seattle Thriftway. Thank you to the scouts, their parents, and to all of the many West Seattleites who donated food!
Another Successful Instruments of Change Dinner/Auction
The 12th annual celebration of the WSFB’s biggest fundraiser of the year filled the Seattle Design Center in SODO. With activities, cocktails by Peel & Press and The Bridge, silent and live auction bidding, a Dessert Dash and Funds for Food paddle-raising, we raised $165,167 (before employer matches come in) to help provide for the 11,500 individuals we serve.
18-year WSFB executive director Fran Yeatts, who drew a standing ovation before she even spoke a word introduced this year’s Instrument of Change Award recipients, the CoHo Team of Windermere Agents, whose Cara Mohammadian has been a longtime WSFB board member. She accepted the award along with Tonya Hennen and explained that the CoHo Team was founded almost 20 years ago, and that community support is a vital part of its mission.
The guest speaker spotlight was on Alina, a West Seattle resident who suddenly became a single mom when her marriage “fell apart” after her baby was born. Food Bank programs like the Baby Corner and bookshelf really helped, she said, adding that the stigma attached to seeking help should go away – the community should “be partners together and help each other.” Her backstory was told in a video played before she came on stage to thank WSFB supporters. That stigma had initially affected her: “When I first went to the Food Bank, I was a little ashamed,” she said, coming from an immigrant family that didn’t accept help from anyone. But meeting her daughter’s needs forced her to get over that. “The Food Bank is awesome!” she exclaimed. It provides healthy food “so my daughter’s not eating ramen. … Thank you, every single one of you.”
The Dessert Dash inspired some of the night’s generous giving seeing donors winning delectable creations by some of WSFB supporters including Bakery Nouveau, Baked. Custom Cakes, Macrina Bakery, On Safari Foods and both WS Thriftway & Met Market.
Live and silent auctions featured an array of items from a stay at the acclaimed Willows Lodge, to a home taco party catered by Pecado Bueno, to social-event tickets donated by Joe Jeannot, to Backpack Program founder Rosslyn Shea‘s 10-person Kenyan dinner. $1,900 bought a lucky bidder a week in a 3-bedroom luxury condo on the beach at Seaside, Oregon and WSFB board president Ben Viscon of Viscon Cellars donated, with Duos Catering, a wine dinner 10.
The night’s success was in no small part because of our extremely generous community sponsors. Many thanks to Nucor, HomeStreet Bank, First Lutheran Church of West Seattle, Aegis Living, Viscon Cellars and our entire group of giving sponsors for covering the majority of the cost of this event so that the proceeds can go directly to providing nutritious food and other needed services to those we serve.
Thank you to our sponsors, guests, donors and volunteers for making the 12th Annual Instruments of Change such a success!
C & P Coffee to Hold We Heart West Seattle Benefit Party
C & P is excited to announce their first annual fundraising event supporting the West Seattle Food Bank, West Seattle Helpline and WestSide Baby on Saturday, September 14th from 4-7pm.
There will be food, games, a silent auction, and live music.
Tickets are $25.00 and will be available at the coffee shop and at Brown Paper Tickets. Online Sales begin August 14th.
Here is the Facebook event page.
Habit Burger Grill Pre-Opening a Fundraiser for the Food Bank
On June 2nd, Habit Burger Grill on the corner of 35th & Avalon did a pre-opening for West Seattle as a fundraiser for not only the West Seattle Food Bank from 5 – 7 pm raising $1719 but also for the West Seattle High School Band.
Thank you Habit Burger Grill and welcome to the neighborhood!
Nucor Employees Holiday Drive
For many years Nucor, with the help of Omega Morgan, have delivered donated food & money to the West Seattle Food Bank during the holidays. The annual gifts are a partnership between the steel mill and its employees – who donate food and cash, which then is matched $2 for every pound & dollar (and then some) by Nucor. Totals for this year were $17,500 and 3520 pounds of food.
The West Seattle Food Bank has such an appreciation for everything Nucor does for not only the food bank but for all the non-profits in West Seattle. They are such a wonderful community partner. Thank you to their employees and to Omega Morgan Machinery for helping deliver and unload all of the food.
