Authors: Conor Ellert, Chris Houglum, Jean Tucker

Feed. Nourish. Build. It’s Second Harvest’s work and your impact.

Our team spent time recently more clearly defining how our hunger-relief mission shows up in local neighborhoods because of support from people like you. We developed a new framework for us to talk about the important work we do every day and how the different areas of our work overlap.

The result? Feed. Nourish. Build. Three pillars of our vital work. All are connected, and each is important and contributes to the whole.

FEED
For 52 years, people like you have stepped up to feed local kids, adults, and seniors when times have been tough. You’ve taken action by volunteering your time, donating your dollars, and sharing food from your cupboards and fields. Your actions demonstrate a shared belief that hunger is unacceptable in our communities and we ought to do something about it. Together, we are doing something about it.

Food is essential. When it’s lacking, it’s known and felt. Its absence shows up in many forms—fatigue, irritability, stress and even hopelessness. But when food needs are met, a person can realize a fuller life, free from worry about their next meal, and with an increased capacity to navigate life’s challenges head-on.

So, in our feed, nourish and build missional framework, what’s feed all about? Well, it’s pretty simple. We believe that no one should go to bed with an empty stomach. Everyone deserves access to good, nutritious food. It’s simple math with exponential impact:

Donated food + time volunteered + financial gifts = impact¹⁰⁰

Add those three critical inputs together, sprinkle in some Second Harvest and community magic, and poof! Millions of pounds of food—valued at tens of millions of dollars—are rescued, recovered and ultimately shared with those who need it. Of course, it’s slightly more complicated than that on the back end, but you get the idea. Your inputs lead to life-changing impact.

Together, we can feed our neighbors seeking a lifeline when rogue waves appear and knock them off their feet.

NOURISH
At Second Harvest, nourish is defined as more than calories; it’s an effort to foster well-being and support the whole person.

Food is so much more than just sustenance; it provides students with the opportunity to succeed, families with the chance to enjoy time together, and mothers like Vienna with some peace of mind when it’s difficult to make ends meet. “It helps my family,” she shared while picking up fresh produce and pantry staples at a Mobile Market. “It helps a lot of people.”

With your support, we nourish communities by sharing nutrition education through our network of partner agencies and Mobile Market distributions. We offer free community cooking classes in our teaching kitchen to neighbors who are food insecure. And we provide the right quantity, quality, and variety of food to people facing hunger.

Nourish is about providing food for today and hope for tomorrow.

BUILD
To secure a hunger-free tomorrow, we need to build practical solutions. This includes everything from infrastructure and technology to warehouse equipment and transportation. Think of it as support for all of the people, places and things that make it possible for Second Harvest to serve people facing hunger.

Over 250 partner food pantries and meal providers rely on Second Harvest to source, repack, store and distribute food for their communities. They simply don’t have the resources to do it on their own.

When you invest in Second Harvest, you help build a healthier future across 21 counties in Eastern Washington and five counties in North Idaho.

You provide energy-efficient cold storage that increases the variety and volume of fresh produce and proteins donated by generous farmers and food producers. And you support our productive and welcoming volunteer centers, where neighbors help neighbors build a healthier community.

TOGETHER, WE FEED. WE NOURISH. WE BUILD.
We’ve explored the three pillars of Second Harvest’s work: Feed. Nourish. Build. While our core mission is feeding people facing hunger, we do even more by increasing access to healthy food, supporting well-being and implementing practical hunger solutions.

We can’t do this vital work alone.

We rely on the generosity of others to support our efforts. Together we feed, we nourish, we build. Why? Because no one deserves to be hungry.

How will you feed, nourish or build today for a better tomorrow?