An interview with Marisa Kent-Guerra of Food Lifeline
YPC Community Members vote on the community impact initiatives that are most important to them through our 'Community Impact Survey' . We use those results to determine the sort of nonprofit organizations we partner with throughout the year. Accordingly, January through March of this year, our Impact Focus is food insecurity and hunger and we've partnered with Food Lifeline, a nonprofit working to end hunger in Western Washington.
Food Lifeline believes that access to food is a human right and that nobody deserves to be hungry.
We recently spoke with Marisa Kent-Guerra, Corporate Relations Officer at Food Lifeline. Her work focuses on cultivating relationships with current potential corporate partners, while working through a social and racial justice framework with diversity and equity at the center of everything that they do.
"...in order to fight to end hunger tomorrow, we must hone in on the root causes of hunger in our communities, which include things like poverty, racial inequity, and systemic oppression.
Can you tell us about Food Lifeline and its mission and vision?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: Food Lifeline is a hunger relief organization dedicated to fighting food insecurity in western Washington. We feed people experiencing hunger today while looking to solve hunger for tomorrow. We work with over 325 agency partners in 17 counties, comprised of meal programs, shelters, and food pantries/banks all over western Washington.
Additionally, in order to fight to end hunger tomorrow, we must hone in on the root causes of hunger in our communities, which include things like poverty, racial inequity, and systemic oppression. We do this through our Advocacy team, who, for example, fights to ensure that bills and resolutions Food Lifeline endorses get passed. We tackle problems like addressing the lack of culturally relevant foods at our agency partner locations, we award grants to organizations to enable them to seek true food sovereignty, and so much more.
Food Lifeline partners with other organizations. How does Food Lifeline work with other food banks, shelters, and meal programs?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: Food Lifeline works with our agency partners (food banks, shelters, and meal programs) in a few ways. First, we source and distribute culturally relevant and nutritious foods to our 325 agency partners, tailoring their orders to what they need for their individual communities. Additionally, some of our partners are also grantees (a new program last year) who are awarded funds for projects focused on creating food sovereignty for communities. Ultimately, we exist to support the needs of their agency partners and uplift them and the communities they serve.
How does Food Lifeline address the root causes of hunger including poverty, racial inequity, and social injustice?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: Food Lifeline addresses the root causes of hunger in a number of ways...
The Culturally Relevant Food Program, which requires that Food Lifeline source and distribute culturally relevant foods (like masa, jicama, etc.) for communities with specific dietary or cultural needs to enable them to have access to the foods that best fit those needs.
[We also have the] Community Food Sovereignty Fund, which distributed almost $700,000 in grant money last year. The fund is built to support organizations that are looking to achieve food sovereignty in their communities. We funded projects like a new greenhouse for an organization, an education program for young farmers, and funds for a community garden in a neighborhood with low access to fresh produce and nutritious foods.
Through Advocacy and Grassroots Organizing, our advocacy team is dedicated to advocating for anti-poverty policies and programs, partnering with relevant organizations to advance their missions, and utilizing community engagement and mobilization strategies to encourage broader support for ending hunger in western Washington.
[Our] Priority Counties Project ...has identified 7 of their 17 counties that are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity. We are devoted to working alongside existing and emerging programs to help co-create and invest in community-led food assistance programs. Our Food Access Specialists work directly with the individuals and organizations in the priority counties to bridge the communication gap, identify where Food Lifeline’s support is most needed, and facilitate community-led growth and change.
Food Lifeline makes food accessible in multiple ways. Tell us about your online food ordering program and a mobile food program.
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: Food Lifeline’s online food ordering program, OrderUp, allows our agency partners (meal programs, shelters, and food pantries) to order the items that most fit the needs of their community and service area online for pickup or delivery on a designated day and time during the week.
Food Lifeline’s mobile food programs are executed in partnership with one of our agency partners, and provides a grocery-store-like experience for communities that are experiencing hunger and other barriers to accessing food (like transportation, ability, location, etc.). For example, our partnerships in Pierce County support two senior centers and our partnership in Northgate supports an elementary school and their families.
Can you tell us about the grants Food Lifeline provides to organizations doing projects that support long-term food security?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: Food Lifeline’s Community Food Sovereignty Program is our new grantmaking initiative. It focuses on providing the opportunity for neighbor and community-driven organizations that are passionate about food justice and food sovereignty to receive a grant to execute a project.
These projects range from capacity building for small food pantries, professional development for young farmers, the construction of a greenhouse, building community gardens, and purchasing culturally relevant foods, to various other projects. These projects and the funds we provide enable these organizations to better meet the needs of their respective communities. Additionally, it transfers some power back into their hands, setting them up for the ability to rely on what they are producing and sharing to sustain them and their communities.
Additionally, Food Lifeline’s Advocacy team does both grassroots work around ending long-term food insecurity and work at the state legislative level to support anti-poverty legislation on the docket at any given moment.
Food Lifeline does advocacy work. Are there certain topics or areas you have focused your advocacy on regarding hunger?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: A core focus of Food Lifeline’s advocacy work on the legislative level is broadly anti-poverty, as we know that is a key root cause of food insecurity. That means supporting legislation like HB1329 (preventing utility shutoffs for nonpayment during extreme heat) or HB1238 (providing free school meals for all) to give a couple of examples. Additionally, the advocacy team works to mobilize the communities we serve and the communities we need support from around ending hunger, whether that is asking them to sign petitions, support Food Lifeline’s campaigns to end hunger in our military communities, and so forth.
Are there some success stories in how Food Lifeline has helped with hunger and food insecurity?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: There are plenty of success stories that we have to share:
Food Lifeline has helped support families that are food insecure through the pandemic with their CPOD sites (mobile distribution sites).
Food Lifeline has helped families that are struggling to buy groceries because of inflated prices subsidize their grocery lists to enable them to feed their families what they need.
Food Lifeline has provided millions of pounds of culturally relevant foods to our agency partners that allows them to provide the food that their communities need to them for free.
Food Lifeline has worked to uplift the voices of the food insecure community and let them lead the way when it comes to their wants and needs. We see this particularly in our priority counties with our food access specialists.
Food Lifeline had 17 grantees last year for our Community Food Sovereignty Fund and 14 of them completed their projects this year.
Food Lifeline helps provide our agency partners with the food that they need to keep children who are out of school without access to free meals fed.
How can members of Young Professionals of Seattle contribute to and support the mission of Food Lifeline?
MARISA KENT-GUERRA: There are a few ways! You can donate to, volunteer with and advocate for Food Lifeline. Or you can get your company involved by emailing me at marisak@foodlifeline.org for more details.
You can also host a food and fund drive or participate in Food Frenzy!
