Solid Ground recognizes that hunger and health disparities aren’t due to a lack of sufficient food – they’re caused by inequities designed into the food system which disproportionately impact communities of color. Solid Ground’s Food Access & Education programs work with communities to break down barriers, so they can lead healthful, thriving lives.
Community Food Education (CFE)
Building healthier communities, one ingredient at a time.
Solid Ground’s CFE programs equip people with the knowledge, confidence, resources, and skills to navigate and influence the food system. We work to counter the barriers of racism and oppression that interfere with people’s right to food. We educate kids and adults about growing, buying, cooking, and eating nutritious foods. We center food as a tool to build community and work toward social justice. Our programming is informed by and held accountable to participating community members.
CFE programs, described below, include:
- Adult & Family Education Classes
- Youth Education
- Giving Garden at Marra Farm
- FARMacia
Adult & Family Education Classes
We provide classes on healthy cooking skills, nutrition education, and food budgeting for adults and families living on low incomes. Each class is led by a staff coordinator and assisted by trained volunteers to facilitate fun, lively, interactive, and informative classes. Participants engage in educational activities and help prepare a shared meal.
Youth Education
Solid Ground partners with elementary schools, afterschool programs, and community centers to engage students in interactive cooking, nutrition, and gardening lessons. We work in communities and schools disproportionately impacted by the inequities of our current food system, engaging students in conversations around food security, food justice, and the farm-to-table system. Our lessons aim to foster positive experiences around food and nutrition, providing space for students to directly see, touch, and taste nutritious foods as they prepare recipes together. Additionally, we host field trips for youth at our Marra Farm Giving Garden.
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Giving Garden at Marra Farm
Since 1996, Solid Ground has cultivated a 3/4-acre Giving Garden on historic urban farmland at Marra Farm in the South Park neighborhood. Each year, community members, volunteers, and staff grow thousands of pounds of fresh, organic produce there. All the produce grown stays in the South Park community, nourishing residents via food banks, meal programs, health clinics, and other organizations.
FARMacia
We collaborate with Sea Mar Community Health Centers to bring fresh, healthy food directly to people in Seattle who struggle most to get it. Every week, Solid Ground staff and volunteers pack up freshly harvested vegetables grown at our Giving Garden at Marra Farm and other partner farms and deliver them to Sea Mar’s clinics in White Center and South Park, where they’re set out on tables for anyone who wants them – like a free farm stand. FARMacia offers samples of healthy foods that people can make at home with the produce they take with them. Recipes are available in both English and Spanish.
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Food System Support (FSS)
FSS staffs the Seattle Food Committee, which provides technical assistance, administrative services and advocacy support to a coalition of 27 Seattle food banks. Within the emergency food system, we provide on-the-ground, logistical, and financial support. We also provide continuing education and other trainings for Seattle-area food banks with the goal of bringing an anti-oppression lens to Seattle emergency food providers’ work.
- We help Seattle’s food banks respond to increased community need through equitable distribution of emergency food.
- We make bulk purchases of critically-needed foods and deliver over 7 million pounds of food each year to Seattle food banks.
- We also provide training and support covering everything from pest management, to grant writing, to how to operate a culturally-competent food bank that meets the needs of its patrons.