First look at plans for new Ballard Food Bank

Meghan Walker Ballard

The Ballard Food Bank has just secured their future permanent home at 1400 NW Leary Way — just down the street from their current location.

They announced their upcoming move earlier this year, and have now released some renderings of what the new and improved food bank will look like.

The facility will include a larger grocery-store-style food bank, and will increase the number of social services and programs the organization can offer. The new site will be a Community Resource Hub, which the organizers say will provide space for community members to access emergency financial assistance resources, housing, health, employment, and case management needs.

“We are bursting at the seams, but our vision is to create more thoughtful, welcoming spaces where the thousands of people we serve from across northwest Seattle can feel a sense of belonging,” Ballard Food Bank executive director Jen Muzia said in a statement.

The Ballard Food Bank serves all of northwest Seattle, from Queen Anne and Magnolia up to 145th St — across seven zip codes.

“Our mantra is that access to food is a basic human right,” Muzia said. “Unfortunately, the demand for our services continues to swell, and we’ve outgrown our space. Being able to acquire the lot and tailor a new building to best serve our neighbors in need is going to be transformational.”

Funding for the organization’s new home is coming from a variety of sources, with $500,000 committed from the City of Seattle, $750,000 from the State of Washington, and $1 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The move is still a ways off — the Ballard Food Bank’s current lease will expire in October 2021. Construction on the new site will break ground in 2020, and the new food bank is expected to be open by the fall of 2021.

11 thoughts to “First look at plans for new Ballard Food Bank”

  2. The hobo RVs that park there won’t even have to move. (What happened to the childcare facility that was supposed to be there, said My Ballard, circa a couple years ago?)

    2. As someone who uses the foodbank, I agree with you. I am tired of seeing these people leaving their trash all over the sidewalk. It should be illegal. Park there. Fine. But leaving your garbage everywhere, and your tattered belongings that clearly no longer have a use – should not be tolerated.

  3. I guess my handle fits, I keep coming back looking for some intelligent debate and views but it is always the same thing, trolls and the people that feed them and nothing is ever a compromise, sad really.

    1. maybe, just maybe your the problem? “intelligent debate” in the comment section, where you can lie make up things try and convince people you’re right and their wrong? A little like reading a comic book while looking for reality.

  4. Seems like a huge missed opportunity to develop this into only a single-story building. Why not build an 7-8 story apartment building for housing homeless people with the food bank on the ground floor?

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