Dear University District Food Bank Friends:
 

How are you all holding up? It’s my sincere hope that this message finds you and your loved ones safe, healthy and well nourished.

While I would prefer to be sharing this update with you all in person, an electronically delivered note from a safe distance will suffice for now.

How are we doing at the food bank? Remarkably well, all things considered. Of course, we are tired most days, anxious and curious about our future just like you might be, but we know it is our place and privilege to carry on, and your amazing support – as volunteers, as donors and as well-wishers – makes moving forward each day and each week that much easier to do.
 

Our support is unwavering although it looks very different today than it did a mere six weeks ago.

We remain well prepared to meet our neighbors’ need for food. While we cannot let folks shop within our store like we have for the last 13 years, and frankly that feels a bit strange, we have worked creatively as a team to find new ways to distribute food that still promote food choice but importantly keep customers, volunteers and staff safe. While enhanced sanitizing and social distancing have played a part in our service revision, so have new volunteers and new volunteer schedules, unsolicited grants from foundations, and, importantly, the extra gifts and kind notes from you, our neighbors both near and far.
 

Through your generosity, we have expanded our distribution hours by 50% to ensure that those who come to the food bank can do so with shorter lines and with increased physical distancing. These extra open hours also help us keep our volunteer teams smaller to ensure that they can work safely as well.
 

Through your generosity, we have added a second day of home delivery to reach those families no longer able to access the food bank because of concerns about their exposure to COVID-19. We can help these families navigate their quarantine or self-isolation and remain connected to the healthy food they need to sustain themselves.
 

Through your generosity, we have added four temporary direct service staff. In order to accomplish the many changes we’ve undertaken, we hired four new part-time staff (and added extra hours for others already on staff). These new team members have jumped in and provided the extra help we need to keep workloads reasonable and sustainable for the next few months.
 

Through your generosity, we have kept our shelves full of produce, dairy and other healthy options. While our grocery store donations have varied widely in recent weeks, we have still managed to find wholesale product to bring in to fill in the shortages we experience every week. 

The impact of this crisis has been borne disproportionately by low-income families and families of color. And their path to recovery will be longer and less straightforward. So, we must ensure that our work moving forward supports these families in ways that provides them immediate relief today and expanded opportunity tomorrow.  
  

Your support has been the strong foundation on which our immediate response to the pandemic has been built. We would not have weathered the past few weeks without it. Thank you.
 

We hope your support can remain strong and propel us forward to support the recovery needed in our community over the months and years to come, a recovery that ensures that we build a stronger Northeast Seattle where hunger and economic inequity are reduced and not amplified by this pandemic.
 

In peace and overwhelming gratitude,
 

Joe Gruber
Executive Director