University District Food Bank

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, during a period of Boeing layoffs and a general citywide recession, Seattle families facing financial hardship turned to their community for assistance.  

Churches in the University District were overwhelmed with families asking for food. A small program at Christ Episcopal Church provided a few canned goods once per month, but the requests were more than the church could handle. As a result, the church had to turn away at least one-third of the families who asked for help. The closest food banks at the time were in Fremont and North Seattle, areas difficult to access during their limited hours of service.  

In 1982, Jim Stockdale, the Minister of University Christian Church, convened with community members, including the University District Service League coalition, to discuss solutions. The University District Service League consisted of representatives from University District churches, social service agencies, civic groups, and nearby businesses. Their conversations identified the growing unmet need for food, which inspired them to commit to opening a food bank. That is how University District Food Bank came to be. The first financial contributors of University District Food Bank were University Kiwanis, University Presbyterian Church, the UW Greek System, and Safeco Insurance. University Christian Church provided the space for food distribution. Trish Twomey took over as our first director.  

On May 4th, 1983, University District Food Bank opened its doors for the first time. A donated home refrigerator provided enough storage for the perishable items on-hand. Our first year’s budget allowed $100 per month of food purchasing to supplement donations. At the time, we served approximately 200 bags of groceries per week. By 1984, this number doubled, and by 1986, we were the fifth busiest food bank in Seattle.  

In July 2016, University District Food Bank moved from the University Christian Church into a new home, one shared with 49 affordable housing apartments and a job training coffee shop. We opened our doors in this new location on July 11th, 2016. With this transition, we could significantly increase the amount of food provided to the Northeast Seattle community. We were also able to cultivate a rooftop garden, Rooftop Roots, and expand additional programs. Today, we remain one of the busiest food banks in the city.   

We serve the Northeast Seattle Community through several different programs, focusing on zip codes 98102, 98103, 98105, 98112, 98115, and 98125. Our walk-up food bank on Roosevelt serves nearly 1200 households a week. Our home delivery program serves another 300 households. We host two off-site pantries that serve two areas of deep food insecurity in our distribution area, one in Magnuson Park at a low-income housing complex and another at North Seattle College, a community college with high rates of hunger. Together these pantries serve another 240 households a week. Finally, our Packs for Kids program makes sure kids at risk of going hungry after school hours get easy to prepare meals to take home. We serve 12 local schools and approximately 600 kids a week.  

All these programs work to serve our district of Seattle and provide food and resources to those in need.