By serving each other, we serve our community.

Come volunteer at our Food Bank, and right away, you’ll see a difference: our clients get to choose their food. Yes, it means more work for us, but it preserves their dignity and offers a sense of individual worth. What’s more, it ensures that little food is wasted. It’s the same in the Clothing Bank: clients can shop once weekly for what they know they need. Can you think of a smarter way to recycle?
The mission of the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank is to provide free food, clothing and related services to individuals and families who need basic necessities in order to remain self-sufficient.

The food we offer is supplementary: 8-10 meals’ worth, once a week. We provide basic canned and packaged food items, bread and produce, together with toiletries and essentials such as diapers and pet food, and will deliver these when clients are housebound.


Food

People are starving in Issaquah.

And in Redmond, Renton, and the 9 other cities and towns we serve. This isn’t a crisis like you’ve ever seen. So please don’t respond like you’ve ever responded.

Instead, do something amazing.

For instance? Donate your warehouse. Or some of your stocks. Organize a massive East-side food drive. Get the word out, think big and bold and dynamic, and take action. If all you have time for is the gift of money, we’ll take it here.

And if enough people do something, our neighbors won’t go to bed hungry.

Perishables from grocery outlets. Giveaways from restaurants. We’re doing our best to keep useful food from being wasted – and people from going hungry. But even when the food is free, it costs energy, fuel, hours to collect, prepare and distribute it, often to shut-ins. Even your smallest gift makes a big difference.

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Clothing and More

We need the stuff you’ll never use. Clothes. Shoes. Bedding.

When someone loses a job or a home, self-respect goes with it. When a mother or father can’t keep their kids warm, it feels like the end of the world.

So please, bring us those baby clothes your kids are too big for. The adult clothes that are just taking up room in your closets, or tucked away in boxes in your garage, attic or storeroom. We also need sheets and blankets, lamps, toasters and other small appliances and the things that help folks get through a crisis.

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Referrals

Food and clothing are just part of the picture.

Most people in crisis don’t know where to turn, so they often turn to a food bank first. But going hungry is usually the short-term symptom of something bigger, such as losing a job, domestic abuse, dependency, medical or other problems.

Part of our job is to refer our clients to a network of agencies and organizations. We make thousands of referrals a year – from food stamps to school lunches, educational opportunities to shelters – to help our clients reach the long-term solutions they need.

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Emergencies

Planning for the Unplannable

It can happen to anyone.

A temporary crisis throws a family into a tailspin. Whether hit by a lost job, an episode of domestic violence, an accident or a sudden illness, it can be impossible to get back on your feet without help.

We can provide limited short-term help, often as utility or rent assistance.

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Special Programs

Feeding Hope and Hearts

Extra-special efforts for special times of the year.

School Backpacks. We try to send some 900 local kids to school each year with a new backpack and some essential supplies. The program has been so successful that other agencies have borrowed the idea.

Christmas Baskets. We work to find a sponsor to adopt each of our families in need, providing gifts and a Christmas dinner. In addition, placing local “giving trees” throughout town give us a way to provide gifts for children and seniors who aren’t adopted.

Birthday Toy Bank. For a parent, the only thing harder than having nothing to feed a child is having nothing for a child’s birthday, so we always try to keep some toys in reserve.

How can you help?

Could your office sponsor a Christmas Basket family? Can your family provide a few Birthday Toy Bank toys? Can you volunteer some time to help prepare backpacks? There’s no end of opportunities. Please call or click here.

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