by Amanda Sorell
If you feel like your supermarket trips these days are increasingly straining your budget — and that you’re dishing out more dough for fewer groceries — you’re right. U.S. food prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic, with multiple causes converging to raise the cost of food by 25% between 2019 and 2023. The U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey ranks Washington among the five states where the average weekly grocery spending is highest, and Seattle as the sixth most-expensive city in the country for grocery costs. And because food costs aren’t the only surging expenses, many people in the city are already pinched, living paycheck to paycheck and facing food insecurity. For so many, a bag of free food or a free hot meal may be an urgent necessity or a way to supplement a sparse pantry.
To help meet that need, the city is full of resourceful and generous individuals and groups who are filling fridges and pantries and hosting markets and community meals to help hungry people eat. Read on for a list of some South End places to fuel up free of charge. And while this guide is focused on South Seattle, you can check out the map below for a more comprehensive collection of citywide options.
Know of a free food source or resource that would be a good fit for this list? Let us know at Community@SeattleEmerald.org.
Looking for more than just food? Check out the South End Guide to Mutual Aid Groups in Seattle for a listing of grassroots groups that distribute basic necessities and more.
Across Seattle
Food Banks
Dozens of food banks operate throughout the city, from White Center to West Seattle and Rainier Beach to Bitter Lake. Visitors can shop for free groceries and, in some locations, access other necessities and resources, such as clothing and child supplies. Some food banks provide pre-packed bags, and others offer delivery options. A handful serve culturally appropriate meals, some specify their services for elders, and many are open to all. Use the Seattle Food Committee’s Find a Food Bank webpage to find a food bank near you and search for specific services.
Seattle Community Fridge
This citywide mutual aid network supplies free food to the community through refrigerators set up and stocked by volunteers. The collective encourages visitors to “take what you need, leave what you can.” All but one of the refrigerators are outdoors, and in addition to a map, the group provides narrative descriptions of the fridges’ locations to make them easy to find and pull from or fill. Many of the locations also have dry-storage areas for menstrual products, baby diapers and wipes, baby formula, and hygiene products.
The Little Free Pantries
Like community fridges, these miniature pantries across Seattle are installed and stocked by volunteers, or “neighbors helping neighbors,” and are open all day every day to create a no-barrier way to access food. Find one close to you on the Little Free Pantry map; to see the most results, zoom in on the map rather than searching for your ZIP code.
Central District and Yesler Terrace
Love Offering Community Meal Program
Tuesday and Thursday, 4–6 p.m.
Wa Na Wari, 911 24th Ave.
This Wa Na Wari program serves up free “African diasporic and Native American-inspired cuisine, prepared by Black/Indigenous chefs, two days a week.” It works with local farmers and organizations to source the ingredients that go into its “well-balanced, nutritious, and culturally relevant” meals.
Sunday Soul Community Dinner
First Sundays, 1–4 p.m.
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave. S.
Anthony Tibbs, founder and CEO of Dope Culture LLC, and his son started this community dinner series to serve people soul food — such as mac and cheese, collard greens, corn bread, and fried chicken — while they listen to performances, writes Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero for the Emerald. Though the endeavor is partly fueled by sponsorships and partnerships with organizations and restaurants, it’s primarily funded by Tibbs, who also attempts to connect guests with resources and support, if needed.
For All Saturday Really (Really) Free Market
Saturday, 8–9 a.m.
Yesler Terrace Community Center, 917 E. Yesler Way
This pop-up grocery giveaway takes place weekly, rain or shine, under a “giveaway model” that allows the organizers to “distribute food surplus quickly, efficiently, and safely by picking up food from grocery stores and delivering it straight to distribution in places that are readily accessible to the public.” For All also runs a Free Burrito Project, a meal-prep program for which it recovers grocery store surplus and purchases organic produce to make hundreds of vegan, halal, kosher burritos to give out in Capitol Hill and downtown, and it has a community box-delivery program, for which it bundles surplus groceries in boxes to distribute free of charge.
Food Not Bombs Saturday Free Market
Saturday, 12 p.m.
Yesler Terrace Community Center, 835 Yesler Way
Each weekend, Food Not Bombs members and Yesler Terrace residents collect food donated from local co-ops and distribute it at this free market.
Food Not Bombs Cascade Free Market
Sunday, 1:30–3 p.m.
Cascade People’s Center, 309 Pontius Ave. N.
This Food Not Bombs group doles out organic produce, baked goods, packaged foods, and deli foods, many of which are organic, as well as occasional animal products.
Operation Nightwatch
Daily, 8–9:30 p.m.
302 14th Ave S.
Nightly, this group’s staff and volunteers transform donated food into a hot meal for homeless people, whom they then help find shelter in the city or provide with a blanket and a bus ticket.
Downtown and Pioneer Square
Pike Market Senior Center Senior Meals
Daily
Breakfast: 8:15–9 a.m.
Lunch: 12–1 p.m.
85 Pike St. #200
This senior center at Pike Place Market serves a free breakfast and lunch to people 55 and older every day. The meals are designed to provide a third of a typical senior’s daily nutrition and are served in a congregate setting so attendees can socialize while they eat.
Operation Sack Lunch Open Meal Service
Monday–Friday
Grab and Go: 9 a.m.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Dinner: 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Compass Housing, 210 Alaskan Way
Saturday
Lunch: 1:30–3 p.m.
Compass Housing, 210 Alaskan Way
Saturday and Sunday
Brunch: 10–11 a.m.
Dinner: 4–5 p.m.
Uplift Northwest, 2515 Western Ave.
This group’s Open Meal Service is a “secure, anonymous, no barrier, non-denominational and all-inclusive environment” with no requirements or restrictions placed on who can access a “nutritionally dense, nutritious meal.” Its options include vegetarian, diabetic-friendly, pork-free, shellfish-free, tree-nut-free, peanut-free, and gluten-free meals. It also serves second helpings at the kitchen’s discretion shortly before the end of each meal.
Seattle Food Not Bombs
Saturday and Sunday, 5 p.m.
Occidental Square, 117 S. Washington St.
This Seattle chapter of Food Not Bombs, a “decentralized global movement dedicated to sharing free food,” serves two weekly hot meals under the glass shelter in Occidental Square.
Chinatown-International District
Seattle Indian Center Community Hot Meals
Monday–Friday
Breakfast: 9–10 a.m.
Lunch: 12–1:15 p.m.
624 S. Dearborn St.
The goal of the Seattle Indian Center Community Meal Program is to promote the health of hungry and homeless people by providing hot, nutritious meals in a safe setting, which offers a variety of support services.
The Eggrolls Sunday Service
Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Little Saigon
The Eggrolls mutual aid group, which the author of this article has volunteered with, collaborates with ChuMinh Tofu to host free hot vegan meals and distribute survival supplies in Little Saigon. “The beauty of organizing at ChuMinh is that it’s a harm-reduction strategy,” reads the ChuMinh Tofu website. “Feeding people in need is harm reduction. Providing PPE (personal protective equipment) in a pandemic is harm reduction. Making people feel welcomed no matter the circumstance and cleaning up the spaces that criminalize community members is harm reduction.”
SoDo
SODO Community Market
Monday, 1:30–7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
1915 4th Ave. S., SoDo
This no-cost market provides a wide variety of food items, and shoppers don’t need to show ID, proof of income, or residency information to select from the store’s stock, which includes fresh produce and pantry staples. Plus, it “also offers a variety of services from public agencies including healthcare, housing, legal, and more.”
Emerald Sea Food Not Bombs Free Food Market
Sunday, 12:30–1 p.m.
3414 2nd Ave. S., SoDo
This chapter of Food Not Bombs holds a weekly market of free organic and local groceries and also distributes to “other mutual aid groups in the community which distribute to community fridges, shelters, and other free food markets.”
Beacon Hill
Beacon Food Forest
Jefferson Park, 15th Ave S. and S. Dakota St.
This 7-acre food forest is open to the public year-round and encourages respectful open harvest for visitors and volunteers. Every season, but especially in summer and fall, you’ll find fruits, vegetables, greens, herbs, and more.
Mount Baker
That Brown Girl Cooks! #EverybodyGottaEat Community Meal Program
Thursday and Saturday, 2–6 p.m.
2822 Martin Luther King Way S.
Chef Kristi Brown and the That Brown Girl Cooks! team offer a community meal twice a week: “As a small business who has experienced the warm love of community support, it is our responsibility to pass along that good spirit to those who can benefit.”
Columbia City
Emerald City Pantry Community Fridge
5040 30th Ave. S.
Juli Cummings, a Columbia City resident, established a community fridge outside her home to share with neighbors facing food insecurity. Her mutual aid group collects food from local grocery stores and distributes it to nonprofits, schools, and pantries throughout Seattle. As Ronnie Estoque reported for the Emerald, “The community fridge is open all hours and days following a food delivery, and relies on an honor system when monitors are not present.”
Rainier Beach
Colored Girls Garden Club Sharehouse
Thursday, 1–3 p.m.
Saturday, 12–2 p.m.
9254 57th Ave. S.
Yvette Dinish, founder of the Colored Girls Garden Club, rents a storefront in Rainier Beach that she’s turned into a gathering space and free food pantry. Members of the club collaborate with local gardens and organizations to supply produce and pantry goods twice a week, as well as “deliver boxes of goods to unhoused community members and tiny house villages,” as reported by Amanda Ong for the Emerald. The Colored Girls Garden Club Facebook page emphasizes that all are welcome, but that it makes special accommodations for elders and families.
Farm Stand at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands
June 15–Sept. 28
Thursday, 2–6 p.m.
5513 S. Cloverdale St.
This farm stand in Rainier Beach uses a self-identified sliding scale for the food it sells, and says that for those who need “support to stretch your grocery budget, we offer up to $20 in free produce. We also accept donations from customers who would like to pay it forward and support this benefit for their neighbors.” Find fresh vegetables, herbs, fruit, flowers, eggs, honey, and more.
Rainier Beach Action Coalition Farm Stand
Saturday, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
June–October
9059 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.
From its seasonal farmstand outside the Growth Center, Rainier Beach Action Coalition distributes free produce grown by BIPOC farmers. This farmstand is just one piece of its widespread vision for community stability and economic development, with food acting “as a catalyst for neighborhood identity, cultural diversity and heritage, health and job creation.”
South Park
Urban Fresh Food Collective’s El Mercadito
Tuesday, 4–7 p.m.
1253 S. Cloverdale St.
In South Park, a food desert where access to nutritious food is limited, members of the Urban Fresh Food Collective distribute free fresh food from El Mercadito, or “the little market.” And twice a month, the group delivers food to people who can’t easily travel to pick up a food box.
West Seattle
Delridge Farmers Market
Second and Fourth Saturdays, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Hope Academy, 9421 18th Ave. SW
This market, hosted by the African Community Housing and Development, runs a number of programs to ensure people can access fresh food. On its Facebook page, the market writes, “Farmers markets can be an expensive, exclusive space, and we never want cost or any other factor to be a barrier to our community.” To that end, the market distributes free bags of primarily organic produce sourced from BIPOC farmers in its no-questions-asked free produce bag program; it gives children $5 to spend at the market each week; and it buys back unsold produce from vendors at the end of each week’s market to redistribute through more than 10 community partners.
North Seattle
Casa Del Xolo Community Dinner
Wednesday, 7–8:30 p.m.
Lazy Cow Bakery, Fremont Ave. N. and N. 35th St.
Casa del Xoloitzcuintle is a mutual aid organization associated with Lazy Cow Bakery, a vegan café in Fremont. The group serves a weekly community dinner to which attendees can “bring a dish or just yourself!” Lazy Cow Bakery also has an indoor free-food fridge and pantry that are accessible when the café is open.
Northwest Share’s Free Vegetarian Food Truck
Wednesday, Friday–Sunday, 6:30–8 p.m.
University Heights Center, 5031 University Way NE
This free food truck aims to provide “nourishment with respect while fostering prosperity through the act of sharing.” Customers can stand in line to receive a box of rice, soup, curry, chips, fruit, dessert, and either hot tea or cold lemonade, depending on the season.
Specialty Services
Lifelong Chicken Soup Brigade’s Medically Tailored Meals
Monday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Home Delivery
For this program, a team of chefs and dieticians create free medically tailored meals for people in King, Island, or Snohomish Counties who are low-income, live with a “life-challenging illness,” and struggle to prepare or access nutritious food because of these overlapping factors. The meals are informed by nutritional guidance, culinary traditions and cultures, and dietary preferences, and they’re delivered on a set day of the week. To enroll, call 206-957-1686 or fill out an application for services.
Aurora Commons People’s Kitchen
Monday–Wednesday, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
8914 Aurora Ave. N.
The People’s Kitchen is a program intended to empower members of the community to access “adequate food supplies, a clean and sterile cooking environment, and access to a fully stocked kitchen,” so those who visit can prepare and share food in a welcoming space. This program is one of several drop-ins for unhoused people to rest, eat, connect to services and resources, and receive support.
Plant Based Food Share
Chef Ariel Bangs founded this food share “to close the gap in access to fresh, locally sourced food.” It provides free boxes of fresh, locally sourced, plant-based foods, including grains, baked goods, and bread. If you’re interested in becoming a recipient, look for the week’s sign-up form each Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Free-Food Resources
This guide and its associated map were created with the help of other community and City resources:
- “Seattle neighborhood resource maps” on Reddit, posted to r/Seattle by u/jonob.
- Seattle Food Committee “Find a Food Bank”
- Seattle Community Fridge Locations
- City of Seattle Human Services “Seattle-Area Emergency Food Resources Map”
- Northwest Harvest Food Access Network
- Washington 211
- Real Change Emerald City Resource Guide
- Eat Local First: Find Local Food
This Project is funded in part by the City of Seattle’s Environmental Justice Fund.
Amanda Sorell is a storyteller who lives in Seattle. She’s an editor for the Emerald. Read her newsletter at eClips.Substack.com.
📸 Featured Image: The Tilth Alliance Farm Stand at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands. (Photo courtesy of Tilth Alliance.)
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