We’ve officially wrapped our “Together to End Hunger” holiday fundraising campaign, and thanks to you, we raised 5.3 million dollars!
These funds come at a critical time, as the number of our neighbors facing food insecurity has been growing dramatically. In fiscal year 2023, neighbors seeking food assistance in Western Washington grew by 63% to more than 1.6 million. The cost of living has risensignificantly in Washington in recent years, mostly due to three things—food, housing, and child care. The food and funds raised during this campaign helped to feed our neighbors across Western Washington, while also allowing us to invest in dismantling the systems and policies that foster and perpetuate food insecurity by tackling poverty, racial inequity, and social injustice.
Our success was possible because of the collective dedication of the entire Food Lifeline community—from corporate partners who fundraised on our behalf, to tireless volunteers and advocates who gave their time to grow our movement and keep our shelves stocked, to everyone who donated and spread the word about our work to end hunger.
Here’s how a few of our partners made big impact this year:
Amazon joined forces with local artist Stevie Shao to engage the Kraken fan community in a shared mission “Together to end Hunger” by hosting a food drive during a Kraken game and using their platform to widely publicize our mission; The Kraken and the One Roof Foundation honored Food Lifeline with its “Hero of the Deep” award and much needed $35,000 in grant funds; Delta Air Lines and the Seattle Seahawks awarded Director of Advocacy & Public Policy Aaron Czyzewski with the Delta Community Captain Award and $10,000 to invest in furthering our military hunger work; Intiman Theater donated $15,000 collected during their holiday production of Black Nativity; Les Schwab hosted their Holiday Food Drive, raising $18,000 pounds of food and donating $6,000; Wild Planet Foods donated 29 pallets and 80,218 lbs. of canned Wild Sockeye Salmon with Skin & Bones; Instacart offered a $10,000 match for Community Cart donations to Food Lifeline; and many holiday events hosted us this season—including Seattle Christmas Market and the Landing in Renton Holiday Celebration—giving an opportunity for many people stop to talk to us and learn more about how to support our work.
To these partners and to everyone else who played a part, thank you for joining us this holiday season in ensuring all families had food on their table and for helping us build a movement to end hunger. Working together, we believe Hunger Doesn’t Have to Happen.
