Northwest Harvest Pilots Mobile Food Bank

Thanks to funding from Delta and Gilead Sciences, Northwest Harvest’s Cherry Street Food Bank (CSFB) launched a pilot pop-up food bank in partnership with the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center and Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Central Seattle. The pop-up food bank, also known as a Mobile Food Bank, provides pantry staples to food insecure patients and their families on the fourth Tuesday of each month.

For every pop-up, staff from CSFB load the new Northwest Harvest Mobile Food Bank Van with fresh produce, proteins, and canned goods and transform an empty room at the Central Area Health Care Center into a choice-based pantry. During the pop-up, which takes place from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m., families can visit the makeshift grocery store and shop for desired items.

To ensure the pop-up reaches all potential clients, CSFB staff are collaborating with clinics at the Central Area Health Care Center to conduct patient outreach and bolster referrals. Another way the pop-up is working to increase accessibility is by using CSFB’s low barrier intake form, which only requires a client’s name and the age range of individuals living in their household. Additionally, CSFB and the clinics are working together to develop an evaluation framework that will allow the pop-up to adequately respond to community needs.

Northwest Harvest plans to expand the Mobile Food Bank model to other communities in King County that could benefit from a similar low barrier, pop-up design. Ultimately, Northwest Harvest hopes to partner with emergency food providers across Washington to reach communities that are otherwise underserved.