Apple A Day Cafe Now Open!

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We’re thrilled to announce that the University District Food Bank has taken over the space adjacent to us and turned it into the Apple A Day Café! This café is now open and will better serve our shoppers with free meals and beverages.

Meet Arra Ebersten our café manager who is leading us in this exciting new venture! Read on to learn more about the Café and her vision for how it will further support the community and extend our mission.

What is your vision for the Café?
I want to offer free, satisfying, and nutritious meals for everyone that visits the Food Bank. My goal is to meet the needs of any dietary restrictions or food preferences and provide some culturally familiar dishes. I also want to reduce food waste by utilizing some underappreciated products.

We’re thrilled to announce that the University District Food Bank has taken over the space adjacent to us and turned it into the Apple A Day Café! This café is now open and will better serve our shoppers with free meals and beverages.

Meet Arra Ebersten our café manager who is leading us in this exciting new venture! Read on to learn more about the Café and her vision for how it will further support the community and extend our mission.

What is your vision for the Café?
I want to offer free, satisfying, and nutritious meals for everyone that visits the Food Bank. My goal is to meet the needs of any dietary restrictions or food preferences and provide some culturally familiar dishes. I also want to reduce food waste by utilizing some underappreciated products.

What will the Café offer the community?
We try our best to identify and meet the needs of our customers. There is a self-serve coffee station that we set out every morning before we open, and it’s wildly popular. In addition to coffee and tea, people can enjoy fresh fruit, instant oatmeal, and other snacks. And this has allowed us to finally be able to expand to a full meal program offering hot meals and freshly made salads.

Why is this Café going to be so impactful right now?
People are hungry when they come in. Shopping at the food bank is a time commitment. Between making their way here and waiting in what can be a very long line they get or arrive hungry. Taking home a bag of groceries to cook for your family is great, but it doesn’t help you in the moment. I also find that our shoppers who can cook also want to enjoy the prepared foods that are reserved for our unhoused friends. With this cafe, everyone will be treated to food that they can enjoy immediately.

What will the Café hours be?
I would like to be open the same hours as the Food Bank, but we still have a few challenges to work around. Stay tuned!

Any other details our community shout know?
A big shout out to everyone who helped launch this program. It would not have happened without the support of the whole Food Bank community!We try our best to identify and meet the needs of our customers. There is a self-serve coffee station that we set out every morning before we open, and it’s wildly popular. In addition to coffee and tea, people can enjoy fresh fruit, instant oatmeal, and other snacks. And this has allowed us to finally be able to expand to a full meal program offering hot meals and freshly made salads.

Why is this Café going to be so impactful right now?
People are hungry when they come in. Shopping at the food bank is a time commitment. Between making their way here and waiting in what can be a very long line they get or arrive hungry. Taking home a bag of groceries to cook for your family is great, but it doesn’t help you in the moment. I also find that our shoppers who can cook also want to enjoy the prepared foods that are reserved for our unhoused friends. With this cafe, everyone will be treated to food that they can enjoy immediately.

What will the Café hours be?
I would like to be open the same hours as the Food Bank, but we still have a few challenges to work around. Stay tuned!

Any other details our community shout know?
A big shout out to everyone who helped launch this program. It would not have happened without the support of the whole Food Bank community!

Volunteer Spotlight: Jorge + Stephen

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Volunteers Jorge and Stephen met while volunteering at the Food Bank on Saturdays. You can count on these friends to be there each weekend helping to sort and pack food, load delivery vehicles, or tend to any tasks that are needed, and have some fun and laughs along the way.

Thank you both for your dedication to this community!!

Meet Jorge Montesinos

When did you start volunteering at the Food Bank?
July 2022. 

What are your typical volunteer responsibilities?
Helping with home deliveries is the main task I help with. The Food Bank has a list of people who receive a box filled with food each week. Every Saturday, I help the drivers who pick them up, making sure each box being picked up matches the list while assisting drivers to load and with directions. 

What is your favorite part about volunteering? 
Volunteers and staff have a great sense of camaraderie; times go by very quickly when you work with friendly and kind-hearted folks! Another aspect I enjoy very much involves translating for some of the drivers who show up to pick up weekly boxes. It is very rewarding to help some members of the immigrant community feel welcome as I can translate and even share a few laughs in Spanish.    

Why should others volunteer at the Food Bank? 
The Food Bank’s mission is essential for the community as it steadily tackles such a pressing matter as food insecurity in Seattle. Everyone can help! There are many ways to do so, from greeting customers, organizing deliveries, cleaning, etc. Plus, you get to know and share your time with a truly wonderful and fun group of people!   

What else do you want people to know about our Food Bank community?
There is room for everyone at the Food Bank. You can find teens working with their parents, corporate executives, church groups, and retired people. Each one has an interesting story behind to tell about why they are helping the Food Bank. In a way, each story offers a unique angle to a problem such as food insecurity in Seattle and the United States. In this sense, volunteering at the Food Bank feels good and it is a non-conventional educational experience.

Meet Stephen Rodas

When did you start volunteering at the Food Bank?
October 2022

What are your typical volunteer responsibilities?
On Saturdays: making sure that the correct boxes are loaded for the drivers as quickly and efficiently as possible. Those noon and 1 o’clock rushes can be quite hectic. Any shift I work during the week I just float to what’s needed (greet, stock, sort, etc.).

What is your favorite part about volunteering?
Bothering the fellow volunteers and wonderful employees at the food bank!

Why should others volunteer at the Food Bank? 
The volunteers and workers at the food bank are all such awesome people, it’s incredibly fun and rewarding to help others in even the smallest capacity, and there’s free coffee.

What else do you want people to know about our Food Bank community? 
There’s also free snacks for volunteers 🙂 

Meet Molly Deal our Home Delivery Coordinator

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Meet Molly Deal! She runs our Home Delivery program and is a vital part of the Food Bank team, making sure our most vulnerable and immobile shoppers get nutritious food delivered to them each week.

Your hometown: Seattle! I grew up around three miles away from the food bank.
First concert: Vance Joy
Coffee or Tea: Coffee, I only drink iced americanos.
Favorite Pizza Topping/s: Mushrooms and spicy sausage
Favorite Place to take out-of-towners in Seattle: Gasworks or Whidbey

What is your background?
I graduated from University of Washington in 2022 where I studied Economics, Math, and Diversity. After living in Seattle my whole life, I knew that I wanted to work somewhere where I can help support the community that raised me. I am also the child of two social workers, who taught me the importance of advocating for people’s rights and doing all you can to make sure people’s needs are met.

When did you start at University District Food Bank?
I started in the fall of 2022 as an Americorp volunteer. In June of 2023 I was hired on as regular staff.

What is your role within the organization?
I coordinate our Home Delivery program. Every week we deliver groceries to around 250 households that cannot come to the foodbank because they are elderly, disabled, or otherwise homebound. We have teams of volunteers on Wednesdays and Saturdays that pack personalized grocery bags based on customer’s dietary restrictions and preferences. Then, we have volunteer drivers drop off groceries to people’s doorstep. We also partner with the Pedaling Relief Project, which assigns volunteer bikers to deliver groceries to about 50 households in the area.

What is the most fulfilling aspect of your work?
There is SUCH a diverse array of people in the food bank space; from my coworkers to volunteers to customers. I find it so fulfilling talking to everyone. You really learn about the full range of human experience. The food bank also definitely functions as an informal community center; I love seeing relationships form between people who would have never met otherwise.

What would you like our donors and volunteers to know about the Food Bank?
Right now, there are around 100 people on the waitlist for our Home Delivery program. Some of our elderly and disabled neighbors have been waiting to be a part of this program for well over a year. In order to move people off the waitlist, we need more regular delivery drivers, either on Wednesdays or Saturdays. We also need more food in order to accommodate the growing program!

To be a volunteer delivery driver sign up online here and our volunteer coordinator will contact you. 

Auction Tickets on Sale Now! Join us October 7!

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Auction tickets are on sale now for our annual“Take a Bite Out of Hunger” benefit auction on Saturday, October 7! Come celebrate 40 years of the University District Food Bank.

Purchase tickets individually or get a group together and purchase a table for 8!

Individual ticket: $115
Table of 8: $920
Patron ticket: $175
Patron table of 8: $1,200

Note: general ticket price will increase from $115 to $135 per ticket and general table will increase from $920 to $1,000 on September 8. Patron ticket and table costs will not increase. Patron ticket purchasers will be entered into a raffle for a $300 dinner at a local restaurant and receive upgraded wine.

VIRTUAL EVENT
The Virtual Fund-A-Need and Silent Auctions open at noon on Saturday, October 1, and close at 3 p.m. on Monday, October 9

LIVE IN-PERSON EVENT
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 7, for Silent and Live auctions. All tickets include dinner by Cameron Catering and beverages.

DINNER MENU
Appetizers:
Chef’s Selection of Passed Appetizers
 
Family-Style Dinner:
Radicchio and Little Gem Salad with Mission Figs, Toasted Pine Nuts, and Saba (Vegan/GF)
Herb Focaccia, Caramelized Garlic Butter
Braised Pork Shoulder with White Wine and Fennel, Drizzled with Fresh Basil Pesto (GF)
Stuffed Delicata Squash with Quinoa, Dried Fruits, and Toasted Hazelnuts. (Vegan/GF)
Roasted Broccolini and Lemon with Parmesan
Charred Broccolini and Thin Sliced Lemon with Chilies and Vegan Cheese. (Vegan/GF)
Riso Venere with Roasted Pears, Thyme, and Gorgonzola (Vegetarian/GF)

Meet Our Newest Team Members!

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Please welcome four new team members to the University District Food Bank! We’re thrilled to have them on board! 

Christine Bagley: Development Coordinator (left)

  1. Your hometown: Seattle
  2. First concert: Janet Jackson at Key Arena
  3. Coffee or Tea: COFFEE
  4. Favorite Pizza Topping/s: pepperoni, onions and mushrooms
  5. Favorite Place to take out-of-towners in Seattle: Olympic Sculpture Park
  6. What are you most looking forward to in your new role at the Food Bank? I’m looking forward to spreading the word on the important work we do at UDFB to more members of the community and working with the auction committee to procure some exciting new items for our event. October 7th.  Save the date!

Chey Costello: Pantry Assistant (middle)

  1. Your hometown: Dallas, TX
  2. First concert: The Spice Girls at Starplex in 1998
  3. Coffee or Tea: Earl Grey with honey and soy milk, followed by several cups of coffee/soy lattes
  4. Favorite Pizza Topping/s: Mushrooms!!!
  5. Favorite Place to take out-of-towners in Seattle: Gas Works for a sunset picnic 🙂
  6. What are you most looking forward to in your new role at the Food Bank? Making new friends and participating in my community!

Kirsten Ourada: Pantry Assistant (right)

  1. Your hometown: Spokane
  2. First concert: Radiohead 
  3. Coffee or Tea: Coffee 
  4. Favorite Pizza Topping/s: jalapeno and pineapple 
  5. Favorite Place to take out-of-towners in Seattle: swimming by the arboretum, to the rooftop bar at the Graduate for the 360 degree mountain and city views (!) or to a show
  6. What are you most looking forward to in your new role at the Food Bank: getting to know the community of staff, volunteers and customers, and the sense of place that comes with that. 

Thomas Bernardi: Pantry Assistant (throwing up peace signs)

  1. Your hometown: Snohomish, WA
  2. First concert: Stevie Wonder
  3. Coffee or Tea: Coffee for sure
  4. Favorite Pizza Topping/s: Ricotta, Sautéed Arugula
  5. Favorite Place to take out-of-towners in Seattle: Volunteer Park
  6. What are you most looking forward to in your new role at the Food Bank? I am most looking forward to learning how to make the food bank an even better space where everyone involved feels welcome and connected to the community.