Community Involvement

About Food Lifeline

Food Lifeline brings people in Western Washington together to uphold everyone’s right to nourishing, culturally relevant food – today and forever. We connect and collaborate with our neighbors and partners, advancing food access and distribution that meets the specific needs of communities.

We source this food through the relationships we nurture with food donors, such as farmers, manufacturers, and grocers. We protect the right to food long-term by addressing food insecurity’s root causes, including systemic racism, wealth inequity, and social injustice, through advocacy and policy change, and community partnerships.

Food Lifeline brings people in Western Washington together to uphold everyone’s right to nourishing, culturally relevant food – today and forever. We connect and collaborate with our neighbors and partners, advancing food access and distribution that meets the specific needs of communities. We source this food through the relationships we nurture with food donors, such as farmers, manufacturers, and grocers. We protect the right to food long-term by addressing food insecurity’s root causes, including systemic racism, wealth inequity, and social injustice, through advocacy and policy change, and community partnerships. 

IN FY 2024, FOOD LIFELINE:

• Sourced and distributed over 71,485,000 pounds of food
• Provided the equivalent of 164,030 daily meals
• Provided food to 299 food banks, meal programs, and shelters through 541 distribution sites
• 16,559 dedicated volunteers sorted and repacked food for distribution 
• Served agency partners in 17 counties across Western
  Washington
• These agency partners and food banks served 1.7 million
  people, an increase of 20% from the year before.
• Thanks to the combined impact of donated food and funds, 96% of Food Lifeline’s
  expenses directly support food programs

Data on Food Insecurity in Washington state:

• 1 in 4 households experience food insecurity 
• More than 500,000 children in Western Washington face hunger
• Over 900,000 people in Western Washington participate in SNAP each month

FORTERRA

Forterra is dedicated to land conservation, protecting wildlands to urban spaces throughout the Pacific Northwest. Since 1989, the group has secured more than 275,000 acres in over 450 separate land transactions. Their work serves in a variety of ways:

• Conserve farmland
• Protect a broad range of ecosystems
• Create jobs
• Revitalize small towns
• Reduce wildfires
• Cut greenhouse emissions
• Expand access to fresh, locally grown food
• Lower construction costs
• Develop sustainable urban areas

Blue Fern Homes’ support is helping Forterra secure 4 key pieces of land this year:

• Little Skookum Inlet, 816 acres of river habitat, wetland, and forest, plus 2 miles of marine shoreline;
  
• Maloney Creek and Forest, more than 50 acres of forest that is home to such endangered species as the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl;
• Windy Ridge, 350 acres that have never been logged, with 300-year-old silver fir, Douglas fir, and hemlock towering over the forest; and
• Van Wyk Ranch, spanning almost 4,500 acres of rolling hills, flatlands, steep slopes, and shrub-steppe, which is threatened by climate and wildfires that put both the land and the wildlife at risk.

Rainier Scholars cultivates the academic potential and leadership skills of hardworking, underrepresented students of color.

By creating access to transformative educational and career opportunities and providing comprehensive support to scholars and families, we increase college graduation rates and empower new generations of leaders.

Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS is proud to be the lead funder of ALS TDI’s important research, and our focus continues to be finding potential treatments through the Augie’s Quest Translational Research Center at TDI. In 2021, along with the Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Foundation, we have provided the funding to enroll the next 100 participants in the Precision Medicine Program.