On behalf of the Growing Food for a Healthy Industry branch, we are proud to express that 2025 was yet another successful year, not only for our team but also for the neighborhood as a whole! A year filled with uncertainty, transformation, and disruption in the world was also a year of celebrations, milestones, and laughter.  Kerry White, our Director of Food Justice & Innovation, puts it beautifully in her 2025 Neighborhood Heroes Gala speech:

“Food access is not charity. Food access is an anti-displacement strategy. Food access is a climate strategy. Food access is community safety. When we talk about the work we do through our CSA, Farm Stand, and Community Kitchen, we’re not talking about “feeding the needy.”

We are building systems of belonging—led by the very people who have been excluded from land, capital, and decision-making for generations. We are creating living-wage opportunities for youth, supporting small farmers, and reclaiming food as culture rather than a commodity. Every week, our team—many of them young people from the neighborhood—is moving food from local farms to families, medical clinics, and elders across South Seattle. They are learning leadership, logistics, storytelling, and solidarity. That’s not just operations—that’s transformation. And here’s the thing: none of this happens by accident. It happens because of you.” 

This message captures the deeper meaning behind the metrics that measure our success and the work we do day to day. In this end-of-year recap, each number presented is evidence of the transformation happening on the ground, showing how food justice becomes real through consistent action.

Let’s begin with some top-level highlights:

  • 183 CSA customers in total (combining one-time and weekly customers)
  • 99 CSA weekly customers
  • An average of 139 farm stand customers every week
  • 50.86 pounds of produce distributed through the farm stand and donations during the season
  • Support given to 46 Black & Brown farmers in King County
  • 1,286 hours spent supporting farmers this season
  • 160 meals delivered to farmers over 8 weeks

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program grew steadily week by week. On some Fridays, we had up to 66 deliveries (double last year’s number!), ranging from the Central District to the Tukwila area. A special highlight this year was distributing CSA shares through local health partners such as Tubman Health and Northwest Kidney, where patients received produce to promote nutrition and healthy lifestyles. The farm stand saw its busiest days at the end of August, with foot traffic reaching well over 200. To combat food waste, we ensured any excess produce at the end of the week was distributed to local organizations and partners, including Hand in Hand, Tiny Home Village, and Riverton Church, among others.

A wonderful addition to our team this year has been Marizel Yuen, our Community Culinary Program Coordinator. Marizel introduced our Feed the Farmer program, an initiative that serves meals to farmers when we visit their farms to provide hands-on support. Because farming is labor-intensive, farmers often forget to take breaks and nourish themselves, so these meals offered a chance for everyone to pause and break bread together. Using produce we receive from our local farmers, Marizel also cooks meals for RBAC staff and teaches youth useful kitchen skills. This year, we also brought two youth who used to volunteer at the farm stand onto our team as Food Justice Fellows: Marie Ilombe and Adam Mohamath. We are so grateful for all of them!

Now that you’re caught up on how 2025 went, you might be wondering what we have in store for 2026. While our focus will continue to be supporting local BIPOC farmers and supplying Rainier Beach with fresh, organically grown produce, you will see an expansion of our CSA program and a slight shift away from higher-volume farm stand operations. This expansion strengthens our equity-driven work by bringing produce directly to people’s homes, reducing transportation racism, and removing access barriers for folks with disabilities. We aim to have our youth focus more on workshops, expand their enterprise skills, and gain wholesale exposure. Stay tuned to see what we whip up in the new year, and thank you deeply for such a great year!

Sincerely,

The Food Justice Team

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