Northwest Harvest awarded grant from Boeing

With the help of a $100,000 grant from The Boeing Co., Northwest Harvest will spend the year looking for ways to connect small Washington farms with local food banks.

“We hope that this generous grant from The Boeing Co. for a one-year study will help us find new, sustainable ways to improve access to fresh, nutritious food for our hunger relief partners and the hundreds of thousands of people we serve statewide,” said Shelley Rotondo, executive director of Northwest Harvest. “Farmers, food banks and local communities can work together to eliminate hunger and move Washington off the USDA’s list of 15 hungriest states.”

The Growing Connections Project will allow Northwest Harvest to evaluate emerging trends and best practices in farming and identify efficient sustainable programs that could benefit its statewide hunger relief network.

Northwest Harvest will be consulting with Urban Food Link’s Tammy Morales and Kara Martin on this feasibility study.

“Through this research we will identify sustainable models of procurement and distribution of fresh, local produce so that nutritious food is more available to low-income families,” said Tammy Morales, principal of Urban Food Link. “We hope to find models that allow farmers to contribute to community food security while also generating income for local agriculture.”

Northwest Harvest works with the Washington agriculture community and generous community donors to provide food to more than 350 hunger relief programs across the state. One of its main warehouses is located in Kent.

“Boeing and its employees have a long history of supporting programs that respond to the issue of hunger in our community,” said Liz Warman, director of Global Corporate Citizenship at The Boeing Company. “We are pleased to support Northwest Harvest’s Growing Connections project and hope that funding this year of study will help to eventually increase the amount of fresh, local produce provided to families in need.”