1 year anniversary of For All's Saturday Really Free Market revival!

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:

• Come shop at the Saturday Really Free Market. The more you participate, the more you are helping us fulfill our mission to reduce waste efficiently and effectively. 
• Make a monthly financial pledge that supports this and our many other waste reduction programs and offset your annual carbon footprint at the same time!
• Become a Saturday Really Free Market In-Service Member by registering as a volunteer on our website. 

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