Providing nutritious food for our neighbors is a vital resource that MSC continues to prioritize as one of our core services in our community. Unfortunately, funding for food banks is declining significantly as need is increasing with inflation and rising food costs.  

Last fall, we began efforts to address a deficit in our food bank operating budget while centering the needs of our clients and community. These efforts included: 

  • Launched our #hungersquad monthly giving program and Restaurant Week to provide additional opportunities for the community support of the food bank.  
  • Our senior leadership team opted in to one furlough day a month to reduce organizational expenses from October through June of this year.  
  • Reducing other expenses where feasible across the organization. 

Despite these efforts and cutting our budget significantly, we still do not have the funding to operate the food bank in the same manner it has operated over the last several years. 

During COVID, large amounts of relief funding combined with tremendous community generosity allowed us to expand staffing and programs. That funding is now greatly diminished. Pending budget cuts at the Federal and State levels will impact our programs even further. In addition, we have also seen a reduction in food donations from our partner organizations which necessitates additional purchases of food, further straining our budget. 

At this time we need to take additional proactive steps to ensure we continue to provide nutritious and life-sustaining food in our community.  

Effective July 7, 2025, MSC’s food bank will transition to our new Redondo Heights Food Bank Market and the current location at our offices in Federal Way will no longer provide food distribution. We have reduced our food bank staffing by 50% since November.  

Our new space at Redondo Heights was designed with a food bank in mind and will allow us to serve our food bank customers in way that centers their needs, providing them more choice and dignity than at our current location. We will also transition to offering weekly appointments for customers, eliminating the need for them to stand in long lines waiting for entry into the food bank.   

The Redondo Heights Food Bank is located in Federal Way on Pacific Highway, just four miles North of our current location. It is on a bus line with adjacent, ample parking. Our ability to provide home delivery services and mobile food bank services at senior living communities will continue with this transition to our new facility.  

We are still working out many of the specifics around opening Redondo Heights and will be able to share more detailed information with clients, volunteers, and community members in the coming weeks. We do anticipate a short food bank closure of two weeks or less at the end of June to make this transition. 

While reducing food bank staffing by 50% at the same time we are experiencing an increase in food bank clients is difficult, we are committed to providing food for our community and will always find a way to do so.  

As MSC moves through these tough times, we continue to be committed to positive change and we are confident this will be the outcome of this transition. Working together, we will build thriving communities rooted in equity and justice where we all experience joy and belonging.