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Life on the street is hard for anyone, but for a woman it’s even harder. Just ask Taece.

“I’ve never been so frightened in my life. It’s such a helpless feeling.”

 Taece moved to Seattle from New Orleans early last year. She had a job lined up and a place to stay, but both fell through. She found housing to be unaffordable, and a living wage job was hard to find. Even so, she made the decision to stay.

 “I didn’t have much to go back to…, so I decided to tough it out.”

She found help at the YWCA’s Angeline’s Day Center for Women. Staff helped her find a place to stay and made sure she had a shower, clean clothes, and three warm meals a day.

“If it weren’t this place, I wouldn’t have had much to eat,” says Taece. “Most women here wouldn’t.”

 Food Lifeline provides Angeline’s with more than 40,000 meals every year. It was a critical part of the help Taece needed in order to meet her own potential.

 Today, she has her own place, works two jobs, and attends school for transportation management. When she isn’t busy working or studying, she drops by Angeline’s.

 “I volunteer here whenever I can. I help serve lunch and visit with the ladies. It just fills my heart.”

 And while the meals here are so important, so is the company.

 “It gives them time to sit down, gather, and talk,” says Taece, “because food brings people together, right?”