The Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is proud to partner with the WSDA through the We Feed Washington Program.
The WSDA grant program provides funding to facilitate the procurement and distribution of emergency food resources across Washington state to hunger relief organizations, including organizations that serve black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and other socially disadvantaged communities as directed by the Washington State legislature.
Our project, Cultivating Community: Enhancing Food Security Through Local Farms, aims to enhance community food security by increasing access to fresh local produce, dairy, and meat options in our food bank, while strengthening the local food system and diversity of local farm partnerships.
IFCB will prioritize purchasing from local farmers to augment the current quantity and variety of fresh goods and help connect local farmers and to our food bank community. We will focus procurement on the items routinely identified by our clients in annual surveys: organic vegetables and fruits, high quality dairy items and protein varieties. In doing so, this project will help enhance community nutrition and health, and provide additional funding for culturally familiar fresh foods (like halal and kosher meats).
More info on the WSDA's We Feed WA program is available at https://agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/we-feed-wa.