FEEST Seattle Brings Food Justice Home for Seattle Students
Seattle, WA. Although the COVID-19 crisis forced FEEST Seattle to pause nearly all of its usual activities, the youth-led, health justice organization quickly shifted gears to bring much-needed nourishment to the homes of students in South Seattle and South King County through a grocery delivery program. As Community Engagement Manager Leigh Thomas explained, pandemic-related school closures and job losses have amplified food insecurity, especially for the low-income, youth of color served by FEEST. “We saw a gap in families getting groceries,” Thomas said, “and we decided to bring the food to the students.”
Staff, donors, and volunteers rallied to fill this gap by purchasing and delivering groceries to over 600 families that requested assistance between March and June of 2020 (see above photo of FEEST staff and volunteers purchasing groceries). Currently, FEEST is offering grocery assistance in the form of pre-paid gift cards for eligible families in the Sea-Tac, South Seattle, Skyway, Tukwila, White Center, Burien, and Delridge areas. More information about this program can be found on the grocery gift-card page of the FEEST site and those who would like to contribute can do so through the donation link.
Youth gather around the table at a FEEST community dinner (pre-COVID-19).
Founded in 2008, FEEST is a non-profit organization focused on bringing Seattle youth of color together to build community and organize around issues of food access and health justice. Prior to COVID-19, community dinners, where young people prepared and shared a meal, were the heart of the organization’s mission “to set the table for young people to transform the health and equity of their community by gathering around food & working towards systems change” (see photo above of teens at a FEEST dinner). According to the organization’s leaders, “the FEEST kitchen creates space for young people to reclaim their health, celebrate ancestral food traditions, and share radical joy. In addition to the practical skills youth learn in the kitchen, breaking bread together builds lasting community connections that become a foundation for long-term organizing.”
In the past, this organizing has generated several successful youth-led campaigns. Motivated by the belief that “all students deserve to have access to fresh, hot, nutritious, and culturally relevant meals whenever they need them” (FEEST website), a group of FEEST youth leaders worked directly with school administrators to add new, healthy, culturally relevant foods like squash curry and lentil stew to the lunch menus at Highline Public Schools. FEEST youth also created two innovative healthy snack pilot programs that brought free, nutritious snacks to students at Evergreen and Chief Sealth High Schools. Watch FEEST youth talk about their participation in FEEST and their roles as “food justice leaders” in the video below.
This school year, Thomas shared that FEEST plans to continue the grocery gift-card program, and also to bring back some additional programs, beginning with a “youth fellowship program” where students will discuss social justice issues that concern them, and identify causes that they would like to rally around. The best way to support FEEST at this time is to donate, which can be done through the link here.
From FEEST:
FEEST is an organization led by youth of color in South Seattle and South King County working to improve health in our schools. Focusing on the need for more healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food at school, FEEST centers young people as leaders toward concrete changes in our food systems.
Youth are in the lead at FEEST because change is not effective unless those most impacted by health inequities are the decision makers. When young people lead the way with creative solutions, the whole community benefits. Fierce youth who speak truth to power are essential in a time when our communities are constantly under threat by a political system that directly threatens our survival.
We seek health justice: the elimination of all barriers for people to live physically, mentally, socially, culturally healthy lives.
Our mission is to set the table for young people to transform the health and equity of their community by gathering around food & working towards systems change.
