White Center Food Bank
The White Center Food Bank has been providing food, hope, and compassion to those experiencing food insecurity in their neighborhood for nearly fifty years. There has been much to celebrate over those years, but nothing as big as finding their forever home.
The food bank recently moved into its new home on 16th Avenue SW. Not only is the location closer to public transportation and twice the size of their old building (10,000 square feet), but it’s also theirs—both the building and the land.
“It’s huge to own our own property,” says Heather Crandall, White Center Food Bank’s Volunteer Manager. “We don’t have to be worried about being displaced. Displacement has been the story of our neighbors here. Now, we’ll be here as long as the community needs us.”
The White Center Food Bank is open four days a week and offers nutritious food and baby supplies to nearly 11,000 families every year. This includes 600 families served offsite through home delivery, satellite pantries, and partnerships with organizations like Sea Mar Community Health Centers.
However, what truly makes the White Center Food Bank unique is the variety of cultures it serves.
“If you take a walk around White Center, you’ll notice that everything – restaurants, grocery stores, and small businesses – are remarkably diverse.” Says Crandall. “From the Asian cultures to the Hispanic and Arabic cultures, White Center represents them all. I think it speaks to what White Center has always been – a working-class neighborhood with diversity.”
That diversity poses a unique opportunity to the 15 staff members and 536 volunteers who run the White Center Food Bank. Communication. Their team speaks nine languages, and they hope to bring in more language capacity to improve their communication skills.
“Customers love being able to communicate in their first language, and volunteers and staff love sharing their language skills to make customers feel at home,” says a smiling Crandall.
Moving forward, the White Center Food Bank is working to source more culturally relevant foods, create new partnerships with food growers and suppliers, and develop a new strategic plan that will drive deeper connections with the community.