Grocery Delivery / White Center Food Bank

Use your bike to help deliver food to seniors and other neighbors experiencing food insecurity who are not able to travel to the food bank. Must be able to carry 20 lb bags of groceries. Bike trailers are available at the food bank for use. Routes range from less than 1 mile to up to 7 miles.

Select a delivery route to ride: Use the date list from the Event Details link below to find a date that you would like to volunteer and then click "Sign Up" to select the delivery route that you would like to ride. Delivery routes range from just 1 drop-off up to 5 and from less than 1 mile to up to 7 miles. You will be delivering groceries to senior citizens and other people who are experiencing food insecurity and are not able to travel to the food bank in order to receive food.

If you already have not done so - Please fill out our easy to use volunteer sign-up form so that we have your email in order to send you your route details!

When: Meet us on Thursdays at any time between 9:30am and 11am.

Where: Meet on the north side of the White Center Food Bank building.

The address is 10829 8th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98146. (map)

After turning into the parking lot off of 8th ave SW continue straight into the parking lot until you see the loading dock on the north side of the building.

How: After you arrive at the food bank check in with John or any of the warehouse volunteers at the food bank. They will check you in and help you load your bike with the bags that you are assigned! Finally and most importantly, remember to have fun!

Making the deliveries: Delivering to houses or apartments with external doors: Place the grocery bags on the ground in front of the front door, knock and call out “grocery delivery”, and then step back to a safe distance (around 10 feet). If they don’t open the door immediately then give them a quick phone call letting them know that you are a volunteer with the White Center Food Bank food bank and that you are delivering their groceries for the week.

Delivering to apartment buildings: Once you arrive at the apartment building call the phone number provided on the route email telling them that you are from the White Center Food Bank and you are delivering their groceries for the week. Ask them if they can come down to collect their groceries or whether they would like to buzz you into the building to put their groceries in front of their door. If you arrive at the apartment building and someone lets you in, go ahead and put the bags in front of the recipient's door, knock, and call out “grocery delivery”.

If you are unable to reach the person who you are delivering to and you are unable to get into the apartment building please place the bags as close as you can to the main apartment building entrance. Everyone who we are delivering groceries to was contacted by the food bank telling them to expect groceries in the late morning on Thursday.

Safety: Please take healthy precautions by wearing a mask, putting on full finger gloves when handling the boxes and packaged food and use hand sanitizer before and after the food rescue.

Bike Trailers: If you indicated that you would like to borrow a bike trailer from us in the sign-up form we will have those trailers for you when you arrive at the White Center Food Bank.

For returning the trailer, please drop it back off at the White Center Food Bank with Heather after your deliveries. If for any reason you are unable to drop the trailer back off please don't hesitate to call me at my phone number below and we'll figure out a way for you to get the trailer back to me.

Our impact: Since the summer of 2020 volunteers have ridden with us more than 355 times from the White Center Food Bank out into the community in and around White Center and West Seattle. During these rides we have been able to bike more than 49,960 pounds of food and personal care items out to more than 1,249 of our neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity. We also regularly restock local Little Free Pantries with food generously provided by the White Center Food Bank on days when we have extra volunteer capacity.

If you would like to select your route before the ride, click on the Event Details link below. Otherwise, just show up at the food bank and we will figure out your route day of.