Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank

Mission

The mission of the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is to unite our community in nourishing and nurturing individuals by removing barriers to healthy food, vital resources, and connections to essential services.

Description

With a 52 year history, the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is a crucial center of support for approximately 6,000 people in our region. We serve anyone who comes to us seeking help, however most of the people we serve are within a 110 square mile radius including Issaquah, Renton Highlands, Newcastle, and Sammamish. Our free food and basic needs resources help people gain and maintain stable housing, employment, and overall health. In addition to a market and onsite emergency response resources, we also deliver food regularly to approx. 200 homes for those who are unable to travel to the food bank, as well as providing supplemental nutrition for students on the weekends and over school breaks.

The Need
According to the Washington State Food Security Survey (WAFOOD4) conducted between December 2022 to January 2023, food insecurity remains high with 46% of the surveyed households in King County experiencing low to very low food security in the past month. Groceries were reported as the most challenging bill to afford.

In 2022, food-at-home/grocery costs increased by a shocking 11.4% - and food costs remain high this year. Recent data from the USDA shows grocery costs in February of this year were 10.2% higher than 2022, with projected increases and variability continuing in staples like eggs, dairy, and produce. Combined with significant reductions in SNAP benefits, this puts families in a precarious position to keep food on the table. We are already seeing substantially increased need in the first quarter of 2023, up 32% from the same period last year. 

In response to this, we increased our food purchasing budget by 50% in 2022 and another 20% in 2023 to ensure continued access to high cost, high nutrient foods like fresh produce, dairy, and expensive protein items that are most difficult for our food bank community members to afford.  This equates to approx. $6,000 every week in food purchases! Because we know that food insecurity has serious implications on one's physical, psychological, and behavioral health, we prioritize nutritious food. Our shoppers are deeply grateful to have a healthy selection of food to feed their families:

"Fruits and vegetables are a great source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and help maintain good health. Therefore, when these are available it makes me happy because I know my family of 7 will be well fed and will get the most balanced nutrition. Especially, my little picky eaters won’t go hungry when they refuse to eat meat. Availability of produce helps my family to pack nutritious lunches for school every week as well (my kiddos don’t like to eat school food at all, so we have to pack our own lunches). Thank you for your helping hand!"

Yana, Family of 7

Your support during GiveBIG will help us to purchase those higher priced, higher nutritional value food items, including produce, eggs, cheese, yogurt, and meat. Thank you for being a part of our story!

 We're almost there! 
Please join us in this effort to meet our $30,000 goal!

Thank you to our generous $10,000 match donor and for everyone who gave a gift of $200+ to double your impact and help us reach our match.