Phinney Neighborhood Association – Winter Festival and Crafts Fair.

All canned goods collected on Sunday are donated to the FamilyWorks Food Bank.  Hope to see you there!

Nation & World | More families going without enough food | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Did you see this article in which more families are going without enough food?  This is not news to us.  We have seen the rise in families using our food bank.  But we live in such a generous community that we have been able to meet the need.  We hope that soon the ecomony picks up, people find jobs and are able to meet their finaincial needs.  Until then, we will remain open to help those who need it.

Looking for some cool (inexpensive) toys for your kids? This November, FamilyWorks will collaborate with CoolMom.org in a first annual Swap n’ Shop Toy Sale.

The sale itself will be Saturday, November 14 – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Woodland Park United Methodist Church, 302 North 78th St., Seattle, 98103. Please support us by donating your gently-used toys!

Your toys will go to loving homes while raising money for CoolMom and FamilyWorks. FamilyWorks is a food bank and family resource center that nourishes and strengthens individuals and families by connecting people with support and resources. FamilyWorks offers gently used donated toys, books, infant clothing, and kids clothing to families.

Come to our first annual Swap n’ Shop Toy Sale and show us your support!

Thank you!

Help us keep our food bank stocked with nutritious food!  FamilyWorks is looking for volunteers to help with food drives at two local grocery stores.   Duties include handing out flyers and placing donated food into bins.  The following dates and times are available.  We ask that volunteers commit to 1-2 hour shifts.

Wallingford QFC (Adults only due to construction):

Saturday Nov. 7^th 10am – 3pm

Saturday Nov 21^st – 10am – 3pm

Roosevelt Safeway (families & youth volunteers welcome)

Saturday Nov 21^st 10am – 3pm

December 5^th – 10 am – 3pm

December 19^th – 10am – 3pm

To volunteer contact Kate at katebg@familyworksseattle.org or 206-694-6725.

Attention, families in the Wallingford, Fremont, and University Districts! On November 4, 5:30-7, there will be a Family Focus group for adults. Group participants will receive refreshments, a Safeway gift card, a children’s book, and a chance to have a voice in your community. Participants will be asked questions like these:

• What are the needs that every family has?
• What resources or support would help families to meet those needs?
• What would help to make support networks and resources responsive to your family?

If you would like to participate in this focus group, please RSVP to Danielle at 206-576-6534, or click here to RSVP on Facebook. Childcare is available on a limited basis.

BlackRock Volunteers build muscle at the food bank

There’s community building going on in preparation for the September 27th FamilyWorks’ Sunday Dinner and Auction.   BlackRock is our major event sponsor this year and has teams of employees volunteering at the food bank as part of the partnership package. These volunteers will get a complimentary ticket to this extraordinary Tom Douglas’  meal and FamilyWorks program.  Companies like BlackRock and Adobe really put muscle behind the money by promoting volunteerism at the non-profits that they support.   Pictured here are BlackRock muscle builders at the food bank.    Check out the dinner tabs for more sponsors and auction information.    I’ll let you in on a few of my favorites:  glass sushi set, Dave Matthews tickets, 5 liter bottle of Chianti, Adobe Photoshop, Lunch with Frank Chopp, sailing, golfing, massages and more!  

Details include 5-7:30 pm at Pallace Ballroom, Eric Liu, speaker.  Call 206 694-6726 to RSVP.  $100 per plate ($50 tax deductible). Hope to see you there!

After working as the Tutoring & Family Programs Coordinator at FamilyWorks for almost a year, I’d never seen it on a Friday. I’d heard rumors that the hallway, normally bustling with food bank users, resource center drop-ins, and community members hanging out, was completely empty on Fridays. I couldn’t imagine it.

To be fair, the Friday I chose to visit FamilyWorks a few weeks ago happened to be the day our record-breaking heatwave broke. The city in general seemed to express a collective sigh of relief. People slept in, children didn’t have to be shuffled around with parents on errands designed to spend maximum time in air conditioning, and it was safe to venture outside without a gallon of water.

Nonetheless, the Friday I visited was exactly as I’d heard: eerily quiet. The food bank line was short or nonexistant, playgroup participants normally packing the playroom to capacity were absent, and precisely no one used the chairs set up for lounging in the hallway. If you’re visiting the food bank or the resource center for the first time, I highly recommend choosing a Friday morning. Things move a little less frenetically for sure. For this Chicagoan-gone-Southern-then-estranged-to-Seattle, it’s a nice change of pace.

*check our calendar, available on our website, for specific happenings on Fridays or any other day. Also scroll down to your right to see upcoming events, but keep in mind that due to a WordPress issue, the times are all several hours off (no there are no playgroups at 2am!).

Speaking of Edible Gardens, here’s an article about what Australia’s Sunshine Coast is doing to teach children food security.

Edible School Gardens.

On a recent warm, breezy summer Monday night, I braved the strange crosswalks and lights over the bustling N. 45th St and followed Bagley a couple blocks north until it dead-ended into a park. In the wide open spaces, shade sheltered a woman throwing a ball for her small dog, children kicked around a soccer ball, and I could hear the clanking sounds of gardening tools from my right. Following my ears, I rounded the corner and entered the Good Shepherd P-Patch.

None of the gardeners could remember exactly how long the P-Patch has been sponsoring and cultivating a Giving Garden through Lettuce Link, but it’s been at least several years. As a result of these dedicated volunteers, not only can a casual passerby enjoy the quiet yet abundant sanctity of the garden, but one can learn about various sustainable gardening techniques: green roofs, pollination, succession planting, summer/winter rotation, cucurbit trellis, double-digging raised beds, floating row covers, interplanting, companion planting, broadcast sowing, tomato trellising, and more. Moreover, the volunteers tend a Giving Garden, an area in which the produce grown is donated to FamilyWorks Food Bank.

On this particular evening, the P-Patch volunteers dug in and harvested over 51 POUNDS of food for FamilyWorks! I’d highly recommend checking out this gorgeous P-Patch, honing your gardening skills with the information posts you can find throughout the garden, and enjoying the bounty of organic food mixed with the beauty of various flowers. Just be sure to take note of the yellow plum tree you’ll pass through as you enter the gate – or you’ll end up with an overripe plum splattering on your head! (No one will notice, luckily, if you proceed to lick your fingers after you clean your hair.)

Want to get involved? The waitlist for P-Patches is notoriously long (I’m currently waiting for a spot at any of them, hoping not to have to ditch my potted tomatoes and beans when I move), but you may be able to find a space and a new friend with this garden listing. For more photos, please visit FamilyWorks’ Facebook Page.

I also encourage teen and young parents to join us on saturdays for our support/fun group. We will be having a field trip to the aquarium on the 29th.