Our annual Auction and an allocation from the Minister’s Discretionary Fund raised $24,675 to use with our 4 partner organizations for relieving the strain of food insecurity during the pandemic. You can learn more about the Project here. The Steering Team has created a giving plan and is in conversation with our partners about their volunteer and financial needs. We have begun distributing the money and several volunteer events have happened with more to come. We’ve determined that we won’t be offering opportunity with one partner – Mobile Meal Alliance – until Covid restrictions are looser. We are able to volunteer and donate to the other 3 partners. Here are more details:
Food Packing with Backpack Meals for Kids!
Our newest volunteer opportunity! On January 28, we had our first Backpack Meals for Kids activity packing weekend meals for Bellevue school district kids to eat at at 12037 NE 5th St, Bellevue. This is a once a month event during the week that starts at 8:30 a.m. and usually lasts between 1 to 2 hours. This activity is indoors, in a large open air warehouse. There is no signage outside that indicates it is a BSD warehouse. We need a coordinator to handle signups for this event, communicate with Backpack Meals for Kids and attend steering team meetings. All can be done from home! Please consider how you might support this work.
Backpack Meals for Kids is 100% volunteer run. Normally, they fill the gap between food available at school and weekends with no food. Right now there is no food being served at schools. They pack 600 meals a week to help fill the gap and still offer a weekend meal. East Shore is volunteering for weekend lunch packing and the Covid Food Relief Project has donated $2,000 to Backpack Meals towards the cost of food supplies.
Jubilee Reach: Every Week
The Jubilee Reach ‘Groceries for Families’ project has grown to provide groceries for more than 700 families each week. Learn more about their program directly here. East Shore’s Covid Food Relief is contributing $1,100-1,500 per month to purchase enough food for 15 families. Each week, Colleen Lamb and Laurie Wick buy the food at QFC and deliver it to Jubilee Reach to be packed into separate bags for each family. In addition, Karen Ramsahai has been purchasing bulk items at Costco. We are very pleased to be a part of this wonderful program. In February, we are hoping to be able to host volunteers to pack these groceries at East Shore to prepare for delivery to Jubilee Reach, probably on a Saturday or Sunday. This would be a good family project, one of the goals of our Covid Food Relief effort.
Beet Picking & Future Harvesting at Food Bank Farm
Help to serve the community, and have fun while you’re at it! It’s a chance to get outside into the wide open spaces of farm fields, off the screen, enjoying the fresh air and learning about food growing and how far generosity can go! Since 2011, The Food Bank Farm in Snohomish County, just near Bob’s Corn and Maze, has been growing food to donate. Millions of pounds of it. Most of the produce goes to Food Lifeline and all of it is harvested by volunteers! More details are in the upcoming events found here. Also check out their Facebook page. The current crop of beets is nearing the end of harvesting. Stay tuned because Farmer Father Jim says there are year round volunteer possibilities. All ages are welcome to volunteer and you don’t have to be a farmer—in fact, you are welcome even if you have never harvested! You don’t have to stay the entire time – any time you can give is appreciated. Make sure you dress for the weather and activity. The farm has covid safety measures in place.
All farms need equipment and supplies. Food Bank Farm was in need of a tractor that could do close cultivation and weed control row by row. Farmer Father Jim found a used tractor in Montana that East Shore’s Covid Food Relief Project contributed $2,575 towards. After some needed repairs, it will be ready to go into the fields.
Interested in what it takes to harvest beets? Check out this video:
At the annual auction, East Shore raised $20,675. In addition, our minister has allocated funds of $4,000 from the Ministers Discretionary Fund toward the project, making a total of $24,675. The Steering team is hard at work right now creating a generous and thorough giving plan to help make sure this money get to where we need it to go: right into the hearts of the projects that are serving families, children, and youth struggling with food insecurity today. Here are two updates about the current projects we are giving and serving. Stay tuned for updates in the January Beacon and learn more about the project on its landing page.
Jubilee Reach: Every Tuesday
Jubilee Reach Groceries for Families program serves nearly 700 families each week. Jubilee Reach is just two miles from East Shore, on the other side of Richards Road. And three days a week, they have churches just like East Shore dropping of bags, and then staff members handing them out. Learn more about their program directly here. We’ve increased our giving to Jubilee Reach Groceries for Families Programs so that each Tuesday, we are sending 15 bags non-perishables and hygiene items, to Jubilee Reach Groceries for Families Programs. You can read more here. Opportunities for direct delivery and grocery bag packing, we hope, are in the future. For now, we’ve chosen grocery delivery to help keep our community safe.
Beet Picking: Select Saturdays 1:00-4:00 p.m. and Sundays 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Help to serve the community, and have fun while you’re at it! As part of East Shore’s new COVID Food Relief Project, join us to Pick Beets for the Bank – the food bank, that is. It’s a chance to get outside, and off the screen, enjoying the fresh air and learning about food growing and how far generosity can go! We have a chance to work and learn outside at The Food Bank Farm. Since 2011, The Food Bank Farm in Snohomish County, just near Bob’s Corn and Maze, has been growing food to donate. Millions of pounds of it. Most of the produce goes to Food Lifeline and all of it is harvested by volunteers! More details are in the upcoming events found here. Also check out their Facebook page.
All ages are welcome and you don’t have to be a farmer—in fact, you are welcome even if you have never harvested beets! You and your family don’t have to stay the entire 3 hours – any time you can give is appreciated. Make sure you dress for the weather and activity. The farm has safety measures in place.
There will be field trips on additional Saturdays and Sundays: December 26 1-4, December 27 2-5, and then again January 9 1-4, and January 10 2-5.
To sign up, email Grace Colton or Carrie Bowman by Friday at 5:00 p.m. More details will be emailed with directions directly to you.
Blessed by the generosity of our community, East Shore was able to meet our goal and spark the COVID Food Relief Project during the week of Thanksgiving, a time marked by bounty and abundance, but also by disparity and inequity. Through this project, East Shore connects to the local Eastside community and allows us an opportunity to live out our mission in the world, making a mark on our own hearts and those of our neighbors. Our mission is to practice love, build community, promote justice, and explore spirituality. And that’s just what this does. We look forward to continuing this good work with you all and growing together in faith.
Starting Tuesday November 24th, East Shore will be sending five weekly grocery bags, on Tuesdays, of non-perishables and hygiene items, to Jubilee Reach Groceries for Families Programs. Jubilee Reach, a distribution site just two miles from East Shore, sends 700 of these bags out each week. Our participation in this program allows Jubilee to add more families, as new ones are arriving daily seeking food assistance. To start, we’ll be using delivery from a local grocery store to bring the items. In December, we’ll set up volunteer opportunities, so that you can get engaged in the hands on service that changes lives. The first one can be found here.
Our Board and Auction team voted to approve an engaging, community response project for the Fund-A-Need. We want our community to grow together in serving and giving to the local Eastside community, and connecting with organizations and people to help make a difference, today!
What does this project have to do with Unitarian Universalism?
This project has everything to do with Unitarian Universalism and East Shore! We are a faith of open mind, loving hearts, and helping hands. Our Unitarian Universalist principles call on us to respect all who are in need, offer fair and kind treatment, and act on our ideals. We believe in the bounty of the Earth, the generosity of spirit, and the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
Unitarian Universalist congregations come together to answer the call for justice, and right now, COVID-19 is a justice issue. Food insecurity, always an issue, has been made worse by the COVID pandemic. The COVID Food Relief Project serves our neighbors in the community we are a part of – Bellevue and the Eastside – who are in need of direct food support. By working to eliminate the anxiety and challenges of getting food on the table, East Shore helps to support interconnection and growth in the local community.
How is this different from what ESUC already does to serve needs?
The COVID Food Relief Project builds on East Shore’s strong legacy of food insecurity efforts, whether it’s the P-Patch, Sophia’s Way, or Crossroads Meals. This project differs in that it is an appeal for mission-driven church wide giving that also includes learning and sharing opportunities. It is focused on relieving an imminent need and offering our congregants a path towards spiritual growth and community building through service to others.
When we pool our community’s time, treasure, and talent and pour it into the vibrant community of nonprofits and community agencies, we serve our neighbors. Lending a helping hand and engaging in relationships outside our church walls helps to build stronger local communities.
Is this project anti-racist?
A disproportionate number of people needing food relief are people of color. In King County, Latinx, Black, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations are disproportionately represented among callers to 211 seeking food assistance. By August of this year, 31% of callers seeking assistance with food identified as Black and 21% of callers identified as Latinx, when 7% of the overall King County population identify as Black and 10% identify as Latinx. By working to address food insecurity, ESUC is also working to dismantle inequity and white supremacy.
What is Food Insecurity in Western Washington?
You can tell by reading about our partner organizations, food insecurity is alive and well in Western Washington and King County. Learn more now about why those organizations exist. Food insecurity occurs when individuals or households lack reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The CEO of Food Lifeline said on September 10, 2020 that the number of people facing hunger has doubled since the pandemic started and we likely haven’t seen the worst yet. Potentially one in five Washingtonians could be facing hunger by the end of the year. About half the people in Western Washington who are turning to the food bank system have not needed to use the system before.
Since strategies to slow the spread of COVID-19 were implemented, families with children are particularly at risk of food insecurity. National and state policies have enabled new resources or expanded existing resources, but some are set to expire. For example, the CARES Act money has ended and the WA State Legislature won’t be convening until January.
Sometimes families that are homeless need food, and sometimes families that are housed need additional food support. This food support may be in addition to other state and federal benefits, and helps to fill the gaps of those programs.
How much of a need is there for Food Relief in King County?
Even before COVID-19, 12% of King County adults experienced food insecurity. Among those who did receive free food, the most common sources of free food were:
a school or other program for children (the percent varied by week, ranging between 28%- 67% of adults reporting that their household received free food);
a community organization (ranged from 13%-45%);
friends, family or neighbors (ranged between 18%-36%);
and a food bank or food pantry (ranged between 11%-33%).
Tell me more about why the COVID Food Relief Project Partners were chosen:
Working within the existing network of community organizations is the best way to maximize our dollar and time. It is a way to interact with other faith communities with a common purpose. All of the partners and projects chosen can be done during COVID restrictions with precautions and safety measures considered.
Covid Food Relief Project Partners Info & Links
Mobile Meal Alliance: The Mobile Meal Alliance is a food truck meal voucher program. Organization funds donated by a church or other non profit entity are converted into food truck meal vouchers that are given to individuals and families in need of food support. Food trucks are then scheduled by the state food truck association to be hosted at churches, food banks or other residential area businesses. East Shore will work with the Bellevue School District Family Connection Centers to distribute meal vouchers to children, youth, and families who are experiencing food insecurity. East Shore would host a food truck and welcome neighbors, voucher holders, and our own congregants to a meal. https://www.wafoodtrucks.org/mobile-meal-alliance
Backpack Meals for Kids: The school meal program started off in the 1960s by the Black Panthers as one of their 10 point programs. It has since grown into a huge national effort to make sure that during the week, all children in school are given access to free or reduced cost breakfasts and lunches. For many Bellevue School District kids, the only meals they get are at school. On the weekends, they don’t have enough to eat. When children are hungry, everything else is harder, including learning. This program is working to fill that gap; Backpack Meals for Kids provides free, easy-to-make food packs and meals so children have food to eat over the weekend. During COVID-19, Bellevue School District has had to close many of their resources that families rely on. Right now, only two Family Connection Centers (FCC) are open: at Stevenson Elementary and Lake Hills Elementary. These are where Backpack Meals for Kids distribute their weekend meal packs for prek-12. Backpack Meals for Kids buys prepackaged weekend meal packs and stores them in their Bellevue Warehouse for weekly distribution. The program does pack pre-K meal packs on a monthly basis. East Shore would host volunteer parties for hands on packing. http://backpackmeals.org/
Jubilee Reach: Groceries for Families began in March to serve families financially affected by the pandemic. Over 25 organizations and churches have partnered with Jubilee REACH to provide families with groceries, hygiene items, and supplies. Spaced out over three days a week, nearly 700 families come on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday to pick up bags of pantry and staple items. What began as an 8 week program, grew to 12 weeks, stretched through the summer and then continued into the fall and winter. Jubilee REACH also partnered with BelPres to fund a food truck on site. Jubilee REACH does not, outside of COVID, provide food to families, but does serve the needs of families, youth, and children in other capacities, such as job training and English Language Learning. For now, this grocery program is essential. East Shore would be able to pre-puchase items for the grocery bags, pack at our church, and then volunteer to help distribute at their site location, just 2 miles east of East Shore. Depending on our funding, we will be able to determine how many grocery bags per week ESUC can contribute ongoing. https://www.jubileereach.org/blog/2020/10/29/groceries-for-families-week-31-day-3
Food Bank Farm: Located in Snohomish county, just across the road from Bob’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin patch, this ten year old farm grows food for Food Banks and works to support other farms and farmers in gleaning efforts to help bring even more food to the food banks. Started by Fr. Jim Eichner and funded as a ministry of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Redmond. This project delivers most of its food to food banks through the organization Food Lifeline, but also works with Hopelink Food Bank, who harvests food once a week as well. Volunteer individuals and teams harvest the food, and during COVID, also help to pack it directly into large produce bags to eliminate the need for food bank sorting. Food Bank Farm shares land on Chinook Farms with Lowland Farm and One Leaf Farm. During winter months, Food Bank Farm will be welcoming volunteers to harvest beets, and sign ups for Field Trips through East Shore will be provided. https://www.facebook.com/VeggiesforFoodBanks/
Tell me more about how the Auction Fund-a-Need dollars will be spent
The Covid Food Relief Steering Team will determine how the dollars raised at the 2020 Auction will be spent. The team’s choices will be impacted by both how much money is raised and how many volunteers support volunteer activities. Consider how you might give to this project, and what impact you’d like East Shore to make on food insecurity on the Eastside. By giving generously, you help to ensure that the groundwork the Steering team has laid will be put to good use. All of our partner organizations are excited and looking forward to our contributions to this good work.
Ways we will use allocated funds:
Cash donation to Backpack Meals for Kids to pay for pre K-12 weekend food packs. A group of ESUC volunteers also can work to put the packs together. One weekend food pack for kids preK-12 costs $6. Backpack delivers about 680 food packs a week.
To pay for prebagged groceries directly which would then be packed and delivered by ESUC volunteers to Jubilee Reach. Packing can happen at ESUC and be delivered as a group effort. One family grocery bag costs $35. Jubilee Reach distributes nearly 700 of those per week.
To pay for meal vouchers through Mobile Meal Alliance. ESUC volunteers would then host a food truck at church and neighbors and ESUC congregants would join voucher holders in purchasing a lunch or dinner. One food truck voucher, distributed at the Bellevue School District Family Connection Centers, costs $10. To feed a group of 50, which is approximately 12 families, costs $500.
Cash donation to Food Bank Farm. Donate money for seeds and other farm supplies to grow food that is given to food banks. One bunch of beets is about $2. Food Bank Farm donated 360,000 pounds of food last year to food banks in our area. ESUC can offer a field trip for families, children and youth, adults of all ages to go to the field and harvest beets.
I really love this project, how can I support it?
We’re so happy to hear that! We need people at every level to get engaged and involved. We want GIVERS, LEARNERS, AND SERVERS! And, you can be them all! You don’t just have to pick one way of engaging. If you’re able, we invite you to consider giving generously to this project during the Auction! Help continue making East Shore connected to its local community in a visible and profound way! If you’re motivated by having a sense of the bigger picture, of helping out your community, and by having fun and learning throughout, come volunteer in our efforts!
What are the different ways of getting involved and volunteering?
Inspired by the success of East Shore Gets Out the Vote, COVID Food Relief Project offers a variety of simple ways for congregants of all ages to give, learn, and serve the need for food relief. There’s room on both the Steering team and for one-time volunteer roles.
Do you want to help with a one-time position, like attending a food truck event on campus or volunteering during a beet harvest?
Do you want to partner with the Steering Team to coordinate one of those events?
Do you like to do volunteer outreach?
Want to help this project in some way, but don’t know how? OR
Want to help this project in a way that we haven’t listed?
Get in touch! Contact amanda alice uluhan or Grace Colton to indicate you are interested in volunteering for the COVID Food Relief Project Team.
A volunteer at Jubilee Reach said about their experience:
“ I was overwhelmed by the scope, and “reach” of Jubilee Reach. Thousands and thousands of families/individuals were positively touched on just one day. I had no idea. I was impressed by a number of factors- the collaboration of church bodies on the Eastside, the number of families from each of those churches, the ability, of someone, to materially include non-church groups and obtain enormous assistance from Sysco/USDA. The leadership is virtually omnipresent, as well as omniscient. Also, to realize that there is that magnitude of need in Bellevue and environs. Wow, wow.“
How safe is it to participate in the COVID Food Relief Project? I want to be able to protect myself from the risk of COVID.
How safe is it to participate in the COVID Food Relief Project? I want to be able to protect myself from the risk of COVID.
Only you can decide the degree of risk you are willing to take. The ways to participate with the least amount of risk are to volunteer from home and financially donating to this project or volunteering from home to would be for many the options with the least amount of risk. All our project partners have set up protocols and processes that comply with WA State guidelines. Participating in activities coordinated in groups will mean traveling to/from a site on your own or with people you are already living with, and volunteering with social distancing at the site.
Get in touch! Contact amanda alice uluhan or Grace Colton.to indicate you are interested in volunteering for the COVID Food Relief Project Team.
This year, the Board of Trustees and Auction Team approved a unique Fund-A-Need item, focused on connecting and equipping East Shore with the ability to give, serve, and learn with the local community beyond our church “walls” and contribute to COVID Relief efforts.
Did you know one in three adults in Washington has difficulty getting access to food? Washington State ranks 10th in the country in overall wealth—and ranks 34th in food insecurity. We want to help plug in to the organizing change efforts all around us. At East Shore, we believe food, along with love, shelter, breath, and water, is one of the basic necessities every human needs to survive and thrive. We want you to join East Shore’s 2020 COVID Food Relief Project: a community opportunity to make a difference. Together our offering is stronger, larger, and longer than any one of us can do alone.
We’re partnering with local organizations. They are welcoming East Shore’s involvement, and we’re happy to join in these efforts with a large interfaith network all across the Eastside, especially those right here in Bellevue.
Our Partners
Mobile Meal Alliance: One food truck voucher, distributed at the Bellevue School District Family Connection Centers, costs $10. To feed a group of 50, which is approximately 12 families, costs $500.
Backpack Meals for Kids: One weekend food pack for kids preK-12 costs $6, and we would be helping to get 680 food packs out a week: that’s $3,600 a week.
Jubilee Reach: One family grocery bag costs $35 and we’re joining to help distribute 600 of those per week, that’s $21,000 a week.
Food Bank Farm: Donate money for seeds and other farm supplies to grow food that is given to food banks. One bunch of beets is about $2. Food Bank Farm donated 360,000 pounds of food last year.
Give
During our online Auction week from November 6-14, we need your support to raise between $11,000-$14,000! These funds will be used throughout the late fall and winter months to directly support families, children, and youth experiencing food insecurity. When we offer our funds to the larger network of community organizations doing this work as well, we can show up to help end hunger.
Learn
During November, December, and January, East Shore will host live webinars featuring live conversations with our partners to learn more about the efforts of our community, the problems of inequity, and how we are making a difference. These conversations are being incorporated into our Religious Exploration lesson plans so we can dive deeper into what it means to live out our values and show up with an open mind, a loving heart, and helping hands.
Serve
We want you to show up to some of our in-person opportunities as well. Whether it’s serving as hosts at East Shore to welcome our neighbors at the food truck, dropping off or helping distribute groceries and food packs, or joining us on a field trip to harvest beets for the food packs, you will have safe, outdoor, social distance activities to join in. We know we’re going into winter, and we want you to remember: there’s no such thing as bad weather, there’s only bad clothes, so dress warmly!
If you are a member of the East Shore community experiencing food insecurity or other difficulties getting access to your basic needs: please reach out so can help. Please connect directly with any of East Shore’s staff members, including Rev. Stephen Furrer who can be reached at [email protected] or (310) 367-5314. There are funds and care to help support you.
If you are a member of the East Shore community who is also connected with another organization that may be interested in joining these efforts, such as Rotary or Microsoft, we want to expand and sustain East Shore’s partnerships through more fundraising, so please get in touch with us today.
Our newest volunteer opportunity! On January 28, we had our first Backpack Meals for Kids activity packing weekend meals for Bellevue school district kids to eat at at 12037 NE 5th St, Bellevue. This is a once a month event during the week that starts at 8:30 a.m. and usually lasts between 1 to 2 hours. This activity is indoors, in a large open air warehouse. There is no signage outside that indicates it is a BSD warehouse. We need a coordinator to handle signups for this event, communicate with Backpack Meals for Kids and attend steering team meetings. All can be done from home! Please consider how you might support this work.
The Jubilee Reach ‘Groceries for Families’ project has grown to provide groceries for more than 700 families each week. Learn more about their program directly here. East Shore’s Covid Food Relief is contributing $1,100-1,500 per month to purchase enough food for 15 families. Each week, Colleen Lamb and Laurie Wick buy the food at QFC and deliver it to Jubilee Reach to be packed into separate bags for each family. In addition, Karen Ramsahai has been purchasing bulk items at Costco. We are very pleased to be a part of this wonderful program. In February, we are hoping to be able to host volunteers to pack these groceries at East Shore to prepare for delivery to Jubilee Reach, probably on a Saturday or Sunday. This would be a good family project, one of the goals of our Covid Food Relief effort.
Help to serve the community, and have fun while you’re at it! It’s a chance to get outside into the wide open spaces of farm fields, off the screen, enjoying the fresh air and learning about food growing and how far generosity can go! Since 2011, The Food Bank Farm in Snohomish County, just near Bob’s Corn and Maze, has been growing food to donate. Millions of pounds of it. Most of the produce goes to Food Lifeline and all of it is harvested by volunteers! More details are in the upcoming events found here. Also check out their Facebook page. The current crop of beets is nearing the end of harvesting. Stay tuned because Farmer Father Jim says there are year round volunteer possibilities. All ages are welcome to volunteer and you don’t have to be a farmer—in fact, you are welcome even if you have never harvested! You don’t have to stay the entire time – any time you can give is appreciated. Make sure you dress for the weather and activity. The farm has covid safety measures in place.
All farms need equipment and supplies. Food Bank Farm was in need of a tractor that could do close cultivation and weed control row by row. Farmer Father Jim found a used tractor in Montana that East Shore’s Covid Food Relief Project contributed $2,575 towards. After some needed repairs, it will be ready to go into the fields.
