Our mission

Ballard Food Bank’s mission is to bring food and hope to our neighbors...because there can be enough for everyone.

To achieve this mission, we provide access to nutritious food through our grocery-style food bank, no-cost café, home delivery, and Weekend Food for Kids program. We also host the Community Resource Hub, where partner organizations offer a range of services like housing, medical care, and veterans’ benefits – all under one roof. Our financial assistance program helps prevent homelessness through eviction prevention. Clients also have access to utility assistance, identification vouchers, and our mail program.

Through this combination of services, we help our most vulnerable neighbors on the path to self-sufficiency.

The Ballard Food Bank strives to be as low barrier as possible in its services delivery and as such students may expect to work with clients with diverse backgrounds and highly varied needs.
This placement will provide students with daily opportunities to engage with clients one on one to meet their varied needs. This will mainly be done by working in the Ballard Food Banks Resource Hub. They will have opportunities to work alongside our Client Advocates to provide personalized support on an ongoing basis to clients experiencing a wide range of challenges in their lives.
We are also anticipating the launching of a new client advocacy program focused on providing measurable structured support to clients who need structured coaching to achieve specific goals in their lives. We anticipate the students carrying a small caseload as a part of this program.

The students will have opportunities to travel to partner agencies of the Ballard Food Bank to learn about service delivery across Seattle.
The students will have opportunities to take part in partnership meetings for service providers in Ballard and across Seattle.
The students will work as part of our Hub team to pilot a new program at the food bank aimed at deepening the support to our middle acuity clients. This will provide the students opportunities learn skills in program development and implementation.
The students will have opportunities to work with our community partners to directly place individuals into housing and then provide ongoing support to ensure its success.

Students will be encouraged to take part in advocacy work done by the food bank at the city and state level as their schedule allows. This will include but is not limited to, participation in a candidates' forum for city of Seattle elected officials hosted by the Seattle Human Services Coalition, representing the food bank as part of housing and homelessness advocacy day in Olympia, and joining on various coalition meetings that food bank staff are members.

This placement has a field supervisor on site.
The students will have access to the full range of services at the food bank. We encourage all our placements to shop at the food bank as part of their placement. If needed students may access financial assistance at the food bank regardless of zip code, within the other requirements applied to all clients.

Required:
Ability to work collaboratively, using discretion, professionalism, integrity, and compassion
Ability to serve children, adults, and families from diverse backgrounds and cultures in a respectful manner
Is highly reliable, with initiative, and flexibility
Ability to multi-task, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills
Likes being part of a team and able to work independently
Must be organized and detail oriented, with problem solving skills
Ability to work and spend extended periods of time standing and or moving
Preferred:
Experience working populations including: survivors, veterans, families, mental health disorders, or substance abuse disorder.
Experience working with escalated clients.
A working knowledge and proficiency in trauma informed care and de-escalation.

Priority will be given to applicants with proficiency in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Ukrainian, Russian, or another language spoken by recent immigrants to Seattle

Please submit your resume and answers to the following questions to careers@ballardfoodbank.org with Client Advocacy Coordinator in the Subject Line.
1) Explain how your skills and/or experience relate to this job and will make you successful?
2) Below are Ballard Food Bank’s core values. Please share which of these values resonates with you the most and why.
• Access to food is a human right, as is access to housing, education, and healthcare. Lack of access to these fundamental rights is a direct result of systemic racism and other systemic injustices that lead to poverty.
• Every individual is worthy of respect, and we value each person’s dignity, worth, and lived experience.
• We commit to centering relationships and meeting people where they are in the moment. • We strive to create a welcoming, intentionally inclusive environment.
• We seek to include perspectives, input, and guidance from the people we serve.
• Healthy, culturally appropriate food is critical to our community’s wellbeing.
• We are stewards of the land. We aim to minimize our environmental footprint, promote sustainability, and support local farmers and communities to grow their own food.