About Food Access & Education
Solid Ground recognizes that hunger and health disparities aren’t due to a lack of sufficient food – they’re caused by inequities designed into the food system which disproportionately impact communities of color. Solid Ground’s food access and education programs work with communities to break down barriers, so they can lead healthful, thriving lives.
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Community Food Education (CFE)
We believe that communities are healthier when all people have access to affordable and culturally appropriate food. CFE equips people with the knowledge, confidence, resources, and skills to navigate and influence the food system. We work to counter the barriers of racism and oppression that interfere with people’s right to food.
We do this by building relationships, fostering positive experiences, creating learning opportunities, and developing a sense of ownership of the food system. Programming is informed by and held accountable to participating community members.
CFE programs support the health and wellbeing of communities experiencing poverty. We educate kids and adults about growing, buying, cooking, and eating nutritious foods. To deepen our impact, we help make local, institutional changes that support the health of the communities we work with – and we center food as a tool to build community and work toward social justice.
Adult, Family & Youth Education
Cooking & Nutrition Classes
We provide six-week class series on healthy cooking skills, nutrition education, and food budgeting for adults, teens, and families living on low incomes. Each class is led by a team of three trained volunteers – Cooking Facilitator, Nutrition Facilitator, and Class Assistant – who work alongside staff coordinators to facilitate fun, lively, interactive, and informative classes. Participants engage in educational activities and help prepare a shared meal.
Youth Education
Solid Ground partners with elementary schools, afterschool programs, and community centers to engage students in interactive cooking, nutrition, and gardening lessons. We work in communities and schools disproportionately impacted by the inequities of our current food system, engaging students in conversations around food security, food justice, and the farm-to-table system. We recognize that no one is too young to become an advocate, so we intentionally create opportunities for learning and developing a sense of ownership of the food system.
Our lessons aim to foster positive experiences around food and nutrition, providing space for students to directly see, touch, and taste nutritious foods as they prepare recipes together. To further engage families in this work, we host Family Market Night events for elementary school students and their families to learn about the food system together.
Farm-based Education
Giving Garden at Marra Farm
Since 1996, Solid Ground has cultivated a 3/4-acre Giving Garden on historic urban farmland at Marra Farm in the South Park neighborhood. Each year, community members, volunteers, and staff grow thousands of pounds of fresh, organic produce there. All the produce grown stays in the South Park community, nourishing residents via food banks, meal programs, health clinics, and other organizations.
FARMacia
We collaborate with Sea Mar Community Health Centers to bring fresh, healthy food directly to people in Seattle who struggle most to get it. Every week, Solid Ground staff and volunteers pack up freshly harvested vegetables grown at our Giving Garden at Marra Farm and other partner farms and deliver them to Sea Mar’s clinics in White Center and South Park, where they’re set out on tables for anyone who wants them – like a free farm stand. FARMacia offers samples of healthy foods that people can make at home with the produce they take with them. Solid Ground and Sea Mar staff collaborate to develop the recipes, which are available in both English and Spanish. The goal is also to share new food prep techniques that make produce more delicious and accessible.
Marra Farm Field Trips
We host vibrant gardening, nutrition, and environmental education programs for young people, including hands-on field trips that engage the senses. We prioritize scheduling schools and organizations that serve a high percentage of students living on low incomes for these opportunities, and we’re proud to be able to offer them free of charge for these groups.
Food System Support (FSS)
FSS staffs the Seattle Food Committee, which provides technical assistance, administrative services and advocacy support to a coalition of 27 Seattle food banks. Within the emergency food system, we provide on-the-ground, logistical, and financial support. We also provide continuing education and other trainings for Seattle-area food banks with the goal of bringing an anti-oppression lens to Seattle emergency food providers’ work.
- We help Seattle’s food banks respond to increased community need through equitable distribution of emergency food.
- We make bulk purchases of critically-needed foods and deliver over 7 million pounds of food each year to Seattle food banks.
- We also provide training and support covering everything from pest management, to grant writing, to how to operate a culturally-competent food bank that meets the needs of its patrons.
