Reading, film screening raise awareness on homelessness

On Jan. 26, the night before Seattle's annual count of homeless individuals in King County, a poetry reading and film screening will seek to raise awareness about homelessness. The event will feature Seattle's Youth Poet Laureate, Angel Gardner, who in June talked to The Seattle Times about her own experience with homelessness, alongside Seattle's Civic Poet, Claudia Castro Luna, and writers from Recovery Cafe and Mary's Place. Attendees will also see a screening of Michelle de la Vega's film US THEM WE, which paired homeless…

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Operation School Bell Clothes Kids and Gives Them Dignity

I’ve probably walked or driven by The Assistance League of Seattle a hundred times, but never bothered to see what went on inside. This charity is run out of two houses on North 45th Street, opposite the Chevron gas station. The AL Seattle runs three philanthropic programs; the Enrichment Scholarship Program, the Financial Aid for Education Program, and Operation School Bell, which provides free clothing for children in need in grades K-5. The Assistance League of Seattle is a chapter of the National Assistance League and it has operated here locally since 1962. The recently declared, State…

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Do Good in the ‘Hood – Become a City Fruit Ambassador

City Fruit, a Seattle nonprofit that harvests local fruit from private and public fruit trees, is now in Wallingford - and offers a new, creative way to get involved with our mission. The City Fruit Ambassador Program is a year long opportunity to use your skills, passions, and contacts to be the voice and face of City Fruit in Wallingford. For example, say you really want to help with the volunteer fruit harvests in your neighborhood. Besides just helping pick the…

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Meet City Fruit at Wallingford Spring Clean – April 19

Do your fruit trees drop more fruit on the ground than into your hands? Do you seek the secret to growing apples organically - without worms? Would you like to help harvest surplus fruit in your neighborhood and get it to those who need it most? City Fruit, a Seattle non-profit that supports care and harvest of local tree fruit, will be expanding into the Wallingford, Fremont, and Ballard neighborhoods this summer to harvest fruit that would normally go to waste.…

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Recycling Challenge – Get A Free Compost Collector

So you live in Wallingford and, of course, you faithfully collect your food scraps and haul them out to the yard waste cart. But do you yearn for a container that's a bit more stylish than that old quart-size yogurt container? Now's your chance. The City of Seattle is offering compost buckets (pictured right) to give - for free - to residents who pledge to compost.  The buckets retail for about $15 and are dishwasher-safe. Pick up your free compost collector…

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Read more about the article Baby It’s Cold Outside
FamilyWorks Staff and Volunteers

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Our recent and prolonged cold snap made me wish there was more I could do to help folks who sleep outside or those who can't afford to heat their homes to a comfortable temperature. I talked with Jake Weber and Elizabeth Ralston at FamilyWorks, our neighborhood food bank and resource center, for advice about how to help in meaningful ways. If you're the sort of person who likes to have something on hand to give to people sleeping out in the elements, Elizabeth…

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