Power couple, Jennell and Wardell Baldwin III are passionate about serving their community and reducing waste. This month we are celebrating their one year anniversary serving at our Saturday Really (Really) Free Market outdoor grocery giveaway. Like many of our In-Service members, Jennell and Wardell invest in For All by making a monthly financial pledge that offsets their annual carbon footprint as well as volunteering their time as For All In-Service Members on a regular basis. We are so grateful to have Jennell and Wardell as part of our For All community! Monthly recurring pledges from In-Service and community members like Jennell and Wardell are important because they help to keep For All's finances sustainable and predictable, so that we can cover costs and grow programs that reduce waste and strengthen communities. Wardell also works for a local employer who has a charitable giving program that matches both volunteer time and financial donation, stretching their contribution to For All even further. Check out For All's Pledge Program to learn how you can support community resource programs like the Really (Really) Free Market and offset your annual carbon footprint at the same time!
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iIn February 2021, For All was asked to take on an early Saturday morning grocery surplus pickup that no other food bank or meal program in Seattle could handle. Understandably so, since the pickup must be done between the hours of 4AM and 7AM every Saturday morning, a time that most organizations are not operating.
One of For All's specialties is filling in the gaps for traditional 9A-5P hunger relief organizations by doing grocery surplus pickups on weekends and holidays. Naturally, we took this opportunity to revitalize a decades old Saturday Really (Really) Free Market grocery giveaway in the Yesler/First Hill neighborhood of Seattle that had temporarily shut down due to construction and then had to shut down long term due to COVID-19. This month we are celebrating our 1 year anniversary of the revival of the Saturday Really (Really) Free Market. Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, a hearty group of about 15 In-Service Members gather in the plaza outside of the Yesler Community Center at 7:15 AM to huddle up and unload the grocery surplus food that the EARLY 5:45 AM crew gathered that morning. In-Service members help to set up and distribute an average of 3 tons of groceries to hundreds of community members from 8-9:30 AM each week. The food that we distribute on Saturdays is grocery surplus, meaning that it is the food the stores pulled off the shelves to make room for more shipments of food. Programs like the Really (Really) Free Market redirect valuable and viable resources into the hands of the community, diverting it from being thrown away and shipped to landfills out of state. Here's how you can help:
We first met Sally Kellaway as a neighbor taking an early Saturday morning stroll past Yesler Park where For All was hosting one of our first Saturday Really (Really) Free Market revival food sharings. One year later, Sally is one of our most consistent Really Free Market In-Service Members and a valued part of the For All community. Sally shows up on Saturdays mornings with an attitude of leadership among fellow In-Service Members and compassion toward the community, rain or shine. Sally also works for a local employer who has a charitable giving program that matches Sally's volunteer hours with a financial contribution to For All. Find out if your employer has a charitable giving program, such as Benevity, that will match volunteer hours and donations made to local community organizations like For All to start giving today! ![]() For All offers free meals and fun, enrichment activities for kids and teens when school is out in areas of Seattle in which 50% or more of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. In 2021, For All distributed over 22,000 free meals for kids and families as grab and go grocery kits. We hosted Pop Up Really Free Markets throughout Seattle and the surrounding counties. In 2019, For All’s Summer Meals for Kids program:
We need your support! Every dollar pledged to For All helps us raise up to $4 in federal matching funds through the Summer Meals for Kids program. Learn more about how you can offset your carbon footprint and support free meals for kids and teens by making a Monthly Pledge of support to For All. At each Free Burrito Project Event, For All creates over 600 from-scratch, plant-based, dietary Vegan, Halal, and Kosher burritos and wrap them in compostable paper with the help of dozens of volunteers to share the freely with the community. The Free Burrito Project:
Want to help For All share even more free food with the community? Visit our Volunteer page and find out how you can offset your annual carbon footprint by making a Monthly Pledge to For All today! Why We Serve- Savannah talks about the Free Burrito Project and Monthly Pledge program.Melissa is one of For All's many monthly pledge members who double their carbon footprint offset by shopping with friends and household members at our Saturday Really (Really) Free Market, helping to keep grocery surplus food from being shipped to landfills out of state. Participating as a monthly pledge member helps to offset annual carbon footprint and helps to keep funding for programs like For All's Saturday Really (Really) Free Market predictable and sustainable. Thank you Melissa for sharing and supporting For All! Learn more about our monthly pledge and carbon offset program on our Pledge page. Andy is a long-term For All volunteer who has helped out with just about all of our many waste reduction, resource sharing programs over the past year. This includes sharing grocery kits with kids and families through our Meals for Kids program, helping create and roll plant-based burritos through our Free Burrito Project, helping to recover and distribute grocery surplus food to the community through the Really (Really) Free Markets, and distribute resources throughout the Greater Seattle area through the Community Box Delivery program. For All is fueled by over 75 volunteers who contributed over 10,000 hours of community service in 2021 alone. Learn more and sign up to join the For All volunteer community here. 1. New ways to wrap gifts: Kraft paper (biodegradable!), Reusable tote bag from your local thrift store or co-op, Shop used bags and fabric, Get creative with your brown grocery bags
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For the first time since COVID-19 hit Seattle in March, the For All team successfully rolled hundreds of vegan, dietary Halal and Kosher burritos to share with our community. The Free Burrito Project started in 2011 as a fun Saturday night rolling burritos with friends hosted by For All founders Annaliese and Terminello. With community at its core, The Free Burrito Project soon grew into large scale community events in which many volunteers gathered to roll hundreds of burritos at a time. Due to its communal nature, The Free Burrito Project was temporarily postponed in 2020. This November, the Free Burrito Project was brought back to life, with several COVID related adaptations. With co-founder Annaliese leading a team of two For All Service Corps members Landon and Audrey, the Burrito Roll became a time to build community between our team. From cooking beans, to finely chopping vegetables gathered from our Grocery Recovery program, to assembling burritos and rolling them into compostable wrappers, to distributing burritos to neighbors living in shelters ...each step in the process was infused with love and a desire to share with our community. Even though we weren't able to welcome you to our kitchen this time, we are eager to continue sharing our stories with you and look forward to the day when we can roll together again. If you are interested in learning more about our current volunteer opportunities, please contact us. Contact Us |