As we navigate the new administration’s effects on the ongoing barriers to food security our community faces, our team at City Fruit is reflecting on our role in the Seattle community and envisioning what part we might play in the Seattle food system moving forward. While we believe that all individuals deserve access to the bounty that City Fruit harvests, City Fruit is a small nonprofit. The need for fruit is immense, and we simply don’t have the capacity to serve everyone.
As a food access organization, we must acknowledge the very real structural and systemic barriers that make it more difficult for some communities than others to access local fruit or have a relationship with food that is healing, nourishing, and life-giving. The historically redlined neighborhoods of Seattle that house the majority of Seattle’s BIPOC and immigrant residents have fewer and lower quality grocery stores, less tree canopy and green space, and lower incomes than predominantly white neighborhoods. BIPOC in King County participate in SNAP (food stamps) at twice the rate of their white counterparts. Other individuals/households who participate in SNAP at higher rates include people with disabilities, households with children and elders, and households with limited English proficiency.
It is important to note how nonprofits, like City Fruit, can sometimes exacerbate the issues their missions are trying to solve by (consciously or unconsciously) avoiding pressure points that would relieve stress on those who are most vulnerable. In other words, nonprofits often avoid naming things like racism and xenophobia, even when those are the very things that created the conditions that led to the nonprofit’s founding in the first place. With the second Trump administration, our country is becoming increasingly hostile to BIPOC, immigrants, LGTBQIA+ people, and unhoused people, which will only exacerbate the disparities that currently exist in terms of food and fruit access.
For all of these reasons, City Fruit commits to re-centering its focus on serving these communities. We are rooting our focus in the belief that when each one of us is taken care of, the collective will thrive. As we prepare for our future harvest seasons and reimagine our relationships with our partners, we will do better at engaging authentically with community members and organizational partners to ensure we provide fruit that is relevant and responsive to your wants and needs. If you are a Seattle-based organization who primarily serves Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, unhoused, and/or queer communities, and you are seeking support in the form of fruit donations (or other collaborations!), City Fruit is here for you. Please complete this interest form if you’d like to partner with us this season.