Our Mission

Supporting our community with hospitality, respect, and nutritious food.

 

Our Values

The Food Bank @ St. Mary’s strives to provide food and groceries for all in our community in response to hunger relief, and we believe in a world where hunger doesn't exist.

 

Seattle Food Committee Mission and Land Acknowledgment

The Food Bank @ St. Mary’s is a long-standing member of the Seattle Food Committee. The mission of the Seattle Food Committee is to end hunger by identifying and addressing the root causes, including systems of injustice and oppression. Together, our member organizations work to educate, advocate and collaborate for food and social justice.

 

Seattle Food Committee members acknowledge their work is done on the lands of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Duwamish (dxʷdəwʔabš), a tribe displaced by the unfulfilled Treaty of Point Elliott signed in 1855 by Chief Si’ahl on behalf of the Duwamish and other allied tribes. Our work today is possible only because of the stewardship of the lands and waters shown by the Duwamish for generations.

 

As a member of SFC, we acknowledge the past violence and erasure caused through white colonization and damage inflicted upon indigenous food systems. These acts, and other intentional ongoing systems of oppression and exclusion, have led to Native Communities experiencing food insecurity at rates more than twice those of Washington State as a whole (WAFOOD 1 and 2, Food Insecurity and Barriers to Food Assistance Use in Washington State Households, 2020 - 2021 and Food Insecurity and Food Access in Washington State Tribal Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021). 

 

We commit to work to create a just food system, which includes taking action to educate and learn from our communities, organizations, and partnerships. We will build connections to tribal organizations and ally with them in restoring and strengthening native food traditions.