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Food Lifeline

4.6 (15 reviews)
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Services - Food Lifeline

Food banks

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Our totals for the night
Paul K.

Awesome setup! Very very organized system. The facility is 2 years new with lots of room and modern facilities. When you volunteer, you meet in the main area, watch a video on safety, listen to an employee tell you about what you'll be doing and they'll answer any questions. After that, you stop by a locker area where you drop off anything you don't need, then go to another area and wash up, put on standard food protection gear like gloves, aprons, etc. Then you are escorted through the area with an friendly employee and shown where everything is located. then go do your tasks. A nice touch is at the end where you meet back at the first main area, watch another video and your host tells you how much good you did using quantity and weights so you know just how much of a difference you made. The people here are so friendly and grateful for the help you provide. There's even photo opportunities for memories sake. For the record, our group sorted 4016 pounds of cereal, which is 32,128 two ounce bowls. We sorted 1,036 bowls per volunteer! This is a good place to help out if you are looking to do a little good in your community.

Sorted boxes of produce ready to go out to the food banks
Jacques I.

What a wonderful volunteer opportunity with Food Lifeline! My office was looking for a volunteer opportunity that would accommodate a group of 10+ for a weekday. It was actually way more challenging than we anticipated, to find an organization that would allow large groups to volunteer for a few hours on a weekday. But fortunately, we found Food Lifeline, an organization helping prevent hunger by supplying food banks all around the region. They are known for their volunteer parties! To arrange a volunteer shift for a group, Food Lifeline staff was able to help each volunteer get registered by our group/workplace online. We received a confirmation e-mail, with detailed instructions of our shift, location and even what to wear. As we arrived at the large Food Lifeline facility in south Seattle we were all greeted by the staff, inviting us after check-in to get coffee, tea, water, store our items in the lockers, and take a picture at the selfie wall. They made us feel welcomed. Before our actual shift started we had a quick orientation on safety procedures and staff was able to inform us of the different tasks that we'd be working on. Our shift was in the afternoon for two and a half hours, which went by quickly since we were learning a lot and having fun! For our volunteer party we helped Hank, the employee at Food Lifeline, sort through donated produce, which was to be transported immediately after to various food banks in the region. It was very cool to hear from Hank his background, time at Food Lifeline, and how our volunteering would feed families. Hank helped us the entire time with the produce and we stacked all of the sorted produce in boxes on crates. We then washed all of the material for sorting, ensuring it was ready for tomorrow's volunteers. At the end of our shift the staff at Food Lifeline debriefed with us on all the work we did, and actually did the math on how many meals we were able to provide, based off how many volunteers and hours worked. This helped us understand the value of our work and all that Food Lifeline does. I cannot thank Food Lifeline enough for making our time volunteering so fun, special and meaningful. Glad to support an organization doing amazing work in our community!

The multi-ton food repack volunteer workout.
Andrew L.

Let's face it, sometimes you get the urge to volunteer; and I'm addicted to finding great non-profits that need help. This is one where, you can get the workout you expect from volunteering, an feel great about the cause. I dare not preach the goodness of this organization, there are four other great reviews about Food Lifeline. Here's the breakdown of the "food repack" opportunity. It's my favorite, but there are many activities there you can participate, depending on your expected workout. This is a review the volunteer event. I decry, I love hard labor, and they give me plenty. In terms of filling bags of food, they come to the facility as pallets, frozen. The goal is to make the large pallet worth of food, disappear into small 2lb bags. If you want the biggest workout, you will want to be the person who refills the bins for the scoopers, or perhaps the person who collects the repackaged food, and packs them into boxes. Your arms will be nicely toned. If you are seeking a little less intensity, you can scoop and measure the food to be packaged, into small bags. Simple, but speed and accuracy is key! What makes these events fun, is the community of people you meet. A wide range of people come and help, so conversation will happen, no matter what role you decide. The staff there keep the music on, and everyone is energized. Before you know it, two hours pass, and you are back in the volunteer room, to hear the results of your labor. I enjoy all the aspects of volunteering, and this organization is perfect anyone looking for a great opportunity. It's also great for families and kids, I believe 6 or older.

Zacarias D.

Today I had the opportunity to participate in Volunteer Day at my company CDK Global, and did Volunteer Day at Food Lifeline in South Park. A group of 15 of my Agency co workers all participated and did a full day of volunteering and it was an amazing experience. I volunteered about 20 years ago at the Food Lifeline in Shoreline and have always wanted to come back here and so happy I did. I wish I had taken pictures during the actual volunteering activity but it got kind of icky today. The first half of the day I was part of the Produce group and was I in for a treat. We ended up going through all different kinds of produce from grocery stores that were on their last leg, from pineapples, to apples, to sweet potatoes, to broccoli etc. If you can imagine produce when going bad turns slimy and moldy. Sorting through good to eat and not good to eat produce was an adventure. The second part of the day I joined the Dairy team in the refrigerator and that experience was actually fun. The fridge was cold but we got to wear cool bright orange warm fleeces, and check expiration dates on milk, coffee, tofu, and yogurt. Carry heavy milk crates lid on pallets and watch em leave the facility ready to be delivered. Bonding and having a team activity volunteering with some co workers was great but I'll share what I really took from today. I go everyday working, buying, taking, running errands, eating, yelping, drinking, etc. but I never take time out of my day and give back or take time out of my so called "busy" schedule and give back. I truly enjoyed volunteering today knowing 31,000 meals were packaged by my team and about 700 meals from myself. It felt good knowing a hungry homeless person at a home shelter or a less fortunate less privileged familia will be able to have a decent meal that I helped package. Food Lifeline will for sure see me again, soon!

Waiting after the work.

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Review Highlights - Food Lifeline

I dare not preach the goodness of this organization, there are four other great reviews about Food Lifeline.

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Lifelong - Kitchen Volunteers helping cut cabbage!

Lifelong

(4 reviews)

Industrial District

Lifelong is a pretty awesome non-profit! It all started with an organization concentrating on…read moreproviding meals and groceries to HIV+ individuals. As time passed an HIV+ individuals can live a much more prolonged life, the organization expands its core strengths and mission to provide meals and services to other individuals with diet restrictions/home-bounded. I had the opportunity to volunteer here to help prep meals on a weekend and found the organization to be very well-run. I went from peeling carrots, cubing spaghetti squash to skinning baked fish. What I liked what the staff seemed to care a lot about making sure volunteers are guided well to know what to do. They also cared about ensuring the food was prepped well. For example, if they saw some cubes were too large, they would help let us know..or would help let us know to ensure waste is properly composed. At the same time, the staff was super caring! They were so kind...they, for example, encouraged us to go eat some pizzas or snacks that they got donated to keep volunteers' stomachs happy in the facilities, too. Really wonderful experience! I'm definitely thinking of taking my SO to visit here on his free time, as it was pretty relaxing to work in industrial kitchen and just prep meals doing something good for the community at the same time! :)

I volunteer here about 2-3x a month and have to say they are an excellent place to do some service…read morework if you are looking!! They are well organized, give back to the community, and are very appreciative of all the help they get. Highly recommend

Ballard Food Bank

Ballard Food Bank

(12 reviews)

Ballard

The people who work at the Ballard Food Bank are sweet, kind-hearted, and keep everything running…read moresmoothly. My sister and I stop in occasionally when we need help with groceries. Everyone is organized and help you in any way they can. You are always greeted with a smile and treated respectfully. I really like the fact that volunteers will make suggestions and tell you about the variety of food items available. After you select your groceries they quickly bag them up for you and even help you out to your car. Honestly, their customer service is what every grocery store wishes they could be. I wish I could give more than 5 stars.

One of the most degrading, humiliating experiences in my life. I was told by a neighbor that they…read morehave all kinds of food to give away. Me, being not rich, decided to go with him. When I got in, it was worse than a high-school cafeteria. I started at the beginning of the "line" and found bins marked with maximum quantities to take out. Four potatoes. Three carrots. One onion. One bunch cilantro. One beet (blech!). One bag stale popcorn. One loaf of ROCK hard leftover bread from a local bakery. I fracture a front tooth on that! Everything here looked like old stock from the local grocery produce department. I looked around, and on that day they were out of just about everything. Dairy, meat, eggs, sugar, flour--even macaroni and cheese. Nothing worth having. It was like going through a food line in Russia collecting scraps. I don't care how little I have any more, will never, ever go through THAT morose experience again. Ever. And I hope you never have to, either. It is ROCK BOTTOM.

The Food Bank at St. Mary's

The Food Bank at St. Mary's

(2 reviews)

Central District

The Food Bank at St. Mary's serves the Seattle community with a walk in program, home delivery,…read morebaby corner, toddler, no cook bag program as well as a hygiene program. The Food Bank relies on tens of thousands of volunteer hours each year to help those that it serves. If you find yourself skeptical about the amount of hungry people in Seattle, I invite you to volunteer at St Mary's and see what they do first hand and then judge the necessity. Any small doubt was pushed out of my mind when i arrived one morning for my shift and it was below freezing outside. The line was around the block well before the food bank opened, and the line was several hours wait once the food bank opened its doors. St. Mary's is tiny inside, but it serves many more people than many of the larger food banks in the area. If you do not have time to give, St Mary's also accepts donations of food, baby items, hygiene and other necessities. There is even a nice selection of vegetarian items available. Since I have been volunteering at food banks, I noticed that "one pot meals' and items that are easy to carry (non-canned) are preferable to some clients, as they are walking, sometimes very far, without a car. Contact thefbsm.org if you wish to volunteer. They also feed volunteers a nice in house cooked meal, delicious!

They used to be open Tues, Thurs, and Sat. But since someone decided to change their schedule for…read moresome reason to M W F, they are longer open on Saturday. Maybe they don't realize this makes them no longer available to the working poor who have to work M-F!

Rainier Valley Food Bank - Rainier Valley Food Bank's facility located at 9021 Rainier Ave S.

Rainier Valley Food Bank

(5 reviews)

Rainier Beach

Note: this review and rating is from a volunteer's perspective from fall 2010…read more I volunteered at this food bank for several weeks. It takes a few tries before really learning the ropes of this place, because the system is so disorganized. There are particular stations (ex. drinks, desserts, poultry, grains, canned goods, etc) that majority of the volunteers covered, and basically clients got in a line and circled around the facility, grabbing an item from each station. Volunteers only assisted people when clients couldn't reach at item. Other volunteers were the receptionist, who checked every client in, people who restocked the inventory or ran food drives in front of grocery stores. Cons: -the place is VERY small and with so many clients piling in, it gets cramped very quickly -as a volunteer, I feel like I'm not contributing anything at all; yes, some clients were grateful I was there, but I myself felt to gratitude -the permanent volunteers are very rude, bossy, and kind of like bullies (some of these volunteers claimed certain stations, not giving others a chance to be there) -the system is very disorganized. I had to figure out what I was supposed to do for myself. Here's a bit of how the system works: 1. The receptionist checks clients in 2. Clients go around to each station, grabbing 1-3 items, depending on the number in their household

A great food bank. The volunteers are with it. The clients are wonderful! Come out on either…read moreside.

Food Lifeline - foodbanks - Updated May 2026

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