Come Walk for Rice and create a community without hunger
Imagine leaving a country where saying hello literally means “Have you eaten yet?” Now picture arriving in a foreign land where you don’t have enough to eat and the food is as unfamiliar as the language and culture. Now imagine not knowing how to cook or provide a meal for your family. For many immigrants, food is a necessity but also empowerment.
Each Wednesday and Friday morning at the ACRS Food Bank in Seattle, people stand in line waiting for culturally familiar food to alleviate hunger and support basic nutritional needs. Looking at the faces, you might think the ACRS Food Bank only serves Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) seniors, but ACRS opens its doors for all who need help in the community. For example, ACRS provides emergency food service for a diversity of people who experience homelessness in the International District. ACRS also provides hot meals at several sites and brings a mobile pantry to often visited AAPI cultural institutions and groups where clients can pick up food with dignity and overcome stigma and feelings of shame in needing help.
Jun, a cheerful elder who wears his signature yellow cap, sends warm morning greetings to staff and volunteers while he waits in line at the food bank.
“ACRS’ food bank provides nutritious food for us. I really appreciate the services and support from you all,” beams Jun.
The huge smile on his face belies memories of years ago when Jun had been an isolated and depressed senior frequently choosing to stay home alone.
Many ACRS Food Bank clients live by themselves. For many days and nights at a time, they prepare their own meals and eat alone. With increasing food prices and other living expenses, buying what they need is also difficult.
“It is a waste to purchase a whole pack of meat or large quantity of produce since most of the time I can’t even finish it,” says Jun, “and they are quite expensive as well.”
On a fixed income, Jun lives in a low-income senior housing apartment. The ACRS Food Bank supplements his income with a weekly bag of rice, noodles, and fresh produce that helps him meet his basic nutritional needs. This allows him to spend his limited income wisely for other needs, bills, and care.
The ACRS Food Bank is a gateway to supporting clients’ daily needs, a place where they can connect to their community in their own language, get foods of their culture and access the multitude of other programs and services ACRS offers. Many food bank clients are new immigrants and do not speak English. By getting a helping hand on a basic need, clients don’t worry about choosing between food, heat or medicine, and can focus instead on learning English, digital literacy, new job searching skills, and more at ACRS.
Come Walk for Rice and join members of the community, businesses, and organizations in support of the most vulnerable. We stand to recognize the need for ACRS’ food bank and nutrition programs, but we walk to raise funds to keep this service available for all people who face hunger. From the elderly to families with small children, people across the region depend on the ACRS Food Bank for the basic human need to be fed but also nourished.
Your help makes all this possible. Join us in building a community without hunger. Come Walk for Rice.
The 29th annual Walk for Rice takes place Saturday, June 22, 2019, at Seward Park in Seattle. Festivities start 9 a.m. and lasts through 1 p.m. For more information on how to participate, visit walkforrice.org.
Miguel Saldin and ACRS board members Jeff Liang and Cliff Muong contributed to this report.
