How to Reach Us
Solid Ground's Food Resources provide technical assistance and administrative services to the Seattle Food Committee (a coalition of the 29 Seattle food banks serving those in need with supplemental food bags). Food Resources' staff deliver food to member food banks, develop nutrition resources, and provide assistance with the day-to-day operations of running a food bank.
Food Resources brochure
Seniors and People with Disabilities Not Always Able to Acquire Enough Food
In a survey of seven subsidized housing sites for seniors and people living with disabilities Solid Ground's Emerson Hunger Fellow, Brad Johnson found that 54.8% of 188 households surveyed were food insecure, (unable to acquire enough food at some point because of insufficient money or alack of resources for food). Fully 21.3% were classified as having very low food security (food intake was reduced and their normal eating patterns disrupted because the household had inadequate resources for food. Nationally, only 10.9% of households are classified as food insecure. Johnsons’ survey was completed in the final quarter of 2007 and has a 6% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.
Six of the sites were Seattle Housing Authority high-rise buildings. Extrapolating from Johnson’s data to the 28 SHA low income housing sites gives a more complete image of how prevalent hunger is among these vulnerable populations. Johnson did not research the social costs that fall out of this hunger, such as increased medical costs, etc.
In addition to surveys, which are based on the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module, Johnson held two focus groups to learn more about residents’ struggles with hunger.
“I’ll have [enough food] not quite two weeks and then you’re starving again,” one SHA resident told Johnson, summing up the experience of many. In addition to limited resources, access to markets, transportation barriers and health and cultural factors contributed significantly to residents’ food insecurity. Coping strategies employed by hungry households included reducing their food variety, cutting the size of meals, and skipping meals altogether.
Johnson has a number of heart wrenching quotes to flesh out the story. He also has specific achievable recommendations about how the City and area non-profits can meaningfully address the issues raised in his research.
Read Johnson's full report in .pdf format.
Read Johnson's full report as a word document.
Preparing Food Banks for Disasters
Seattle's 27 food banks are neighborhood organizations that 60,000 families rely on each year for basic nutrition and other services. Working through Solid Ground's Food Resources Program and in concert with regional planners and major responders, Congressional Hunger Fellow Nick Maryns developed and implemented a framework for Seattle Food Banks to use to: 1) Become more well prepared as organizations to operate in the wake of a disaster, 2) Understand and develop their role as community resources to play a meaningful role in regional response to disasters.
Go here to read or download Nick's report in .pdf format.
Go here to read or download some simple disaster planning guides for you or your agency in MS Word format.
Go here to read or download a disaster "needs assessment" guide for Food Banks in MS Word format.
Go here to read or download guidelines for an agency "emergency plan" in MS Word format.
Phone: 206.694.6757
Email: trisht@solid-ground.org
FAX: 206.694.6777
Address: Food Resources
Solid Ground
1501 North 45th Street
Seattle, WA 98103-6708