Friends and neighbors! You can’t put a price on vital local journalism, so we didn’t. The Stranger has always been free to read, but not to produce. But now we need your help.
At a time when Seattle communities need local coverage more than ever, we are asking for your support. The Stranger provides full and free access to readers with up-to-the-minute news along with stay-at-home entertainment and resources as we all try to do our part during this COVID-19 crisis.
A monthly or one-time contribution will help sustain our mission of keeping access free for everyone.
For the next week, March 26 through April 1, we will match our reader contributions in digital ad credit for three local organizations to assist in their outreach.
The three organizations we'll be supporting are:
• The Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda)
• Northwest Harvest
• El Centro De La Raza
Find out more about how those organizations are supporting their communities during this crisis below:
During this uncertain time, we are ensuring that our 700+ residents have access to food, healthcare, and are generally safe and healthy. Along with support from partners and volunteers in the neighborhood, we are conducting wellness checks, delivering food, and increasing cleaning in our properties. Additionally, we have partnered with the CID Business Improvement Area and the Friends of Little Saigon to start a CID Restaurants and other Small Businesses Relief Fund (which was seeded by a $100K donation from Vulcan) to put direct dollars into the restaurants and small businesses in the CID, many of whom have seen impacts of this pandemic since early February. The CID Small Business Relief Team is providing information, in language, as well as one on one small business technical assistance.
Find out more about SCIDpda's COVID-19 response here.
To respond to COVID-19, we are doing what we do best—distributing healthy food to locations throughout Seattle and across the state. This includes:• Distributing pre-packed shelf stable food to locations in the Seattle-metro area;
• Increasing the flow of food to our partners in all parts of Washington;
• Keeping Northwest Harvest’s SODO Community Market open for regular hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For now, SODO Community Market has been converted to a grocery bag pickup location – including curbside service for those not wanting to leave their car. This minimizes the wait and best complies with recommendations for social distancing;
• Protecting the Northwest Harvest team and our patrons by adjusting work schedules, volunteer operations, and traditional agency protocols to support social distancing recommendations;
• Working with policymakers to better serve vulnerable communities as these people are often least served by existing social support systems.
Find out more about Northwest Harvest's COVID-19 response here.
We need your help. We are all getting hit hard by COVID-19; some more than others, and not everyone qualifies for assistance. El Centro de la Raza staff are working remotely to continue to provide many of our 43 programs and services.Staff are doing everything in their power to provide relief by checking in with their program participants and helping them enroll in assistance programs, from unemployment and healthcare to small business financial assistance. Our dedicated staff are also:
• Operating the Food Bank by providing pick-up service from the north ground floor entrance only. Staff are protecting themselves by passing bags of food through a walk-up window.
• Calling senior program participants to make sure they are safe and have access to housing, medication, and food. The Senior Program is also offering bag lunch distribution.
• Engaging program participants creatively by providing our classes online, like Financial Empowerment, Unidos in Finance, and Unidos @ Work.
• Raising funds to get young people a laptop $150 each through Comcast’s Internet Essentials program.
• Assisting eligible DACA individuals in renewing their status by applying for a scholarship to cover the exorbitant fees.
• Conducting outreach efforts by phone to complete the Census.
• Providing childcare at our Child Development Center locations to families who need it in order to be able to continue working with priority for first responders, those in the healthcare field, and grocery workers.We hope you join us in this fight against COVID-19.
Find out more about El Centro de la Raza's COVID-19 response here.
