WHITE CENTER EMERGENCY FOOD ASSOCIATION
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to minimize hunger while nourishing community, nurturing self-reliance, and embracing our rich cultural diversity
About This Cause
White Center Food Bank (WCFB) is a woman-of-color led organization, serving residents of Seattle, White Center, Burien and South King County. The customers we serve are unique and important to the fabric of our community. Over the years, White Center as a geographic area has been subject to many changes in its micro-economic climate from influxes and growth of various immigrant groups to periods of rebirth in its business core. The White Center community is one of the most diverse and underserved areas in Washington State. With a median household income of $61,750 (2020 Census) compared with the median household income in King County of $99,158 (King County Communities Count via American Community Survey), it is evident that our community is dramatically falling behind other, more affluent neighborhoods. With rents rising and grocery spending surging, there’s little left for other basic needs. White Center Food Bank’s work is critical to ensure that no one in our community goes hungry or is forced to choose between paying for food and paying for other vital expenses like healthcare or childcare. Since the Great Recession, food banks across the nation had already begun to shift from providing emergency food to serving as a source of long-term supplemental food for individuals and families. This reality only worsened since the pandemic and due to the rising wage gap communities are experiencing. During the pandemic, there was an increase in available SNAP/Food Stamp funding. Yet, when this funding went away in March 2023, the need steadily increased with job losses, inflation, and this dramatic reduction in benefits. Current Washington State budget constraints and at-risk federal funding for Social Security, SNAP, and Medicare further threaten our community. Even temporary disruptions to public benefits would be disastrous for our customers. This illustrates how crucial it is at this moment for WCFB to be able to maintain a fully funded food purchase budget to buy food in bulk to be able to give out to the community for free. We have seen dramatic growth in service demand, with unduplicated individuals served increasing from 11k in 2023 to 13k+ in 2024. Family visits increased 43% in 2024 over 2023, and we already seeing a 31% increase in 2025 over 2024. We are seeing many new customers due to our new location and improved public transit access. We expect to reach nearly 16k unduplicated individuals in 2025 – a 20% increase. Over 75% of those we serve are communities of color and many speak languages other than English. White Center Food Bank employs several multi-lingual intake staff who have longstanding trusted relationships with communities and speak nine languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Khmer/Cambodian, Shanghainese, and Chaozhou) – some have worked at White Center Food Bank for over a decade. These relationships create a family-like atmosphere, where we are not simply helping people access food, but providing a safe, friendly environment where people feel at home. In 2024, 628 unique individuals volunteered, dedicating over 18,000 hours to our organization, which is equivalent to approximately 8.5 FTE, and demonstrates that our community is behind us for this work to keep the community fed. Here is a video that describes our services through the lens of our customers, staff and volunteers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk4E-UHVzoM