We don’t just want to hand guests a bag of food. We provide guests space to make choices in the food they provide for their family, and then we ask them what else they may need. We can’t do any of this without collaboration. From our service partners who join alongside us to provide wrap-around support, to the volunteers who work in partnership with us, and the local farms who provide our produce — ending hunger will take all of us.

As the primary emergency food resource in Seattle’s most racially and economically diverse neighborhood, we are a low-barrier provider, ensuring that anyone can access our services regardless of housing status, income, zip code, or immigration status.

Our Commitment Statement

We want to be an organization that is welcoming with boundaries, ensuring safety and dignity for all neighbors who visit us. We strive to be warm and caring in attitude while remaining clear about our boundaries and expectations, which are intended to promote an environment where different people from all backgrounds and capacities can come together to access our facility, programs, and resources in a dignified and safe manner.

We strive to find ways to use visuals, icons, and signs to communicate our values and boundaries, sharing our standards in a caring and empathetic way that focuses on the outcomes we want and does not single people out or demean them.

We see Rainier Valley Food Bank as a family and friends food temple, where we honor our community, neighbors, and guests by serving with compassion, while practicing inclusion, and focusing on addressing the community in a holistic manner. A sanctuary and a safe place where community find respect, support, and buffer to negative and unjust societal opposition.

We are committed to being emotionally aware, active listeners, always serving with compassion and empathy. We want to be mindful to practice empathy with our whole community, including our own colleagues and outer networks, as we come to better understand and care for each other. We are committed to being supportive and willing to take a pause to pay attention to what others are experiencing, both mentally and environmentally, to enable us to best serve them.

We are committed to creating an environment that is low-stress and chill, where standards are communicated with care and rules and guidelines are based on an essential need to serve our mission in complete alignment with our values. We maintain a joyful community and organization that not only serves with compassion but also celebrates with love, laughter, camaraderie, great food, and a soundtrack of wonderful music and good vibes! We want our attitudes and spaces to be vibrant and full of life, complete with peaceful and intentional decorum.

Lastly, we want RVFB to be a space that encourages us to show up authentically and encourages others to do the same. We recognize and respect the similarities and differences we have in culture with others as we strive to be driven by the needs and suggestions of our community, always including the benefit of all in our considerations and conclusions.

Our Neighborhood

Positioned in the heart of South Seattle, RVFB is the primary emergency food resource for Seattle’s most racially, ethnically, and economically diverse neighborhood and home to many people of color, immigrants, and refugees who regularly face systemic obstacles to living wage employment, affordable housing, and food security. It is home to a wide disparity of living standards where multi-million-dollar homes are down the street from Section Eight housing. As a vital community-based organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of hunger and operating through a justice-based lens, RVFB is a safe and accessible source of culturally appropriate food and wrap-around support for low-income community members in South Seattle.

We at the Rainier Valley Food Bank feel honored to live and operate within an incredibly diverse community. The 98118 zip code, where we are located and work, is the most diverse in the state and the sixth most diverse in the country.

Land Acknowledgement

We recognize that our work happens on the land of the Duwamish People and honor them as the first people of Seattle. Our organization is committed to honoring the culture and traditions of the Duwamish People. As a food bank with social justice at our core, we acknowledge the importance of paying our respect to this land’s history. We encourage our community to educate themselves on the Duwamish People, their history, and customs.