Making Room for All: RVFB’s Groundbreaking Ceremony
One Friday morning, clouds covered the South Seattle sky, the sun attempting to peak through. People placed food, chairs, tables, and a stage in Rainier Valley Food Bank’s “Food Village.” A check-in station was set up, and 50th Ave was closed-off. And a bare, deceased tree sat in a vase and waited for its new life as a piece of art that captured the vision of what food security means to those in South Seattle.
On June 28th, 2024, Rainier Valley Food Bank held a Groundbreaking Ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on their revitalization project for the new community food hub, planning to open in Fall 2025. The new building will provide more than emergency food relief, fully equipped with a grocery-style shopping center, commercial kitchen, sustainable garden, increased food storage, and robust support services. People from all over the South Seattle community and other parts of the Puget Sound region gathered to celebrate the creation of a space with enough room to address the many challenges that lead to hunger in our community.
Development Director, Kathy Ulrich, welcomed everyone to the event and invited guests to enjoy food from local restaurants. Guests ate delicious bites from Salima Specialties, Delish Ethiopian Cuisine, Follow Me Catering, and Spicy Walaa. Volunteer Coordinator, Attiyya Yafeu led a community art project known as the “Tree of Abundance”. As people waited for the program to start, guests had the opportunity to write wishes on colorful fabric and tie them to the tree to share their hopes for the future of South Seattle and ending hunger in our community.
The program began with the Mak Fai Kung Fu Lion Dance Club. Two lions (two people moving in each costume) danced as members of the group played live music, bringing in good luck and fortune to the community. The two members in the white lion costume performed a routine known as the bench dance which symbolizes the lion overcoming struggle and finding its pathway to food. They closed their performance by allowing guests to pet the lions to give everyone good luck.
We heard speeches from RVFB team members and leaders in our community. Capital Campaign Co-Chair, Calandra Childers, welcomed everyone again to the event and shared the vision of the RVFB and its community food hub. Otis Pimpleton, Food Services Manager, shared the history of RVFB, from its previous location and original name when it was founded in 1991, searching for a new home for the past decade, to where the organization is today.
“The food bank is a place where we can take the things that are special about ourselves, and we put them into the food bank. We take the things that are important to us, like our time and our resources. And the food bank serves as a conduit to protect our sacrifice and our investment in the community. It’s not just about what we put into the food bank. The food bank also gives us something as well. And what that is, is meaningful experience and fulfilled life purpose, existential, fulfilled life purpose.”
Gloria Hatcher-Mays, Executive Director at RVFB, then thanked the many people that help the organization and shouted out a few specific people that were a part of the original planning of the new space – Joe McKinstry, Board Chair, Margaret Goffman, and the late Ed Parks, who passed away in 2020. He found the space RVFB is revitalizing, and his heart and care lives on in this space.
Instead of the traditional shovels in dirt photo opportunity, the team found a fruit tree that truly represents abundance, growing Puget golden apricots, Lapin and Rainier cherries, Italian prunes, and frost peaches. Otis, Gloria, Joe, Margaret, and King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay took part in a ceremonial planting of the fruit cocktail tree that will provide fruit to our neighbors in South Seattle.
Councilmember Zahilay shared, “We faced the same issues that a lot of people in South Seattle face, which is food insecurity, hunger, and poverty,” he shared. “And so, to be able to come here on this stage today after all that and be able to be part of something so special to give people hope, food security, a place to gather and a place where we can have healthy communities across the board [is a] very special moment.”
The event closed with a performance from Red Eagle Soaring, a Native American youth theater group in Seattle. They performed two songs that incorporated drumming, cultural singing, and hand gestures: A Duwamish welcome taught to them by Roger Fernandez to welcome everyone into the space, and the red Eagle Soaring Song, written by an alum of the program in Lakota.
After the program concluded, everyone enjoyed slices of guava cake from Cakes of Paradise and ice cream from Creamy Cone. That Friday afternoon, the sun broke through the clouds and shone down on the food village. Smiles and laughs gleamed across people’s faces as they enjoyed food and shared in the moments with those around them. A once bare tree became the tree of abundance, filled with colorful fabrics that represented hope for the future of Rainier Valley Food Bank, South Seattle, and ending hunger for all.
To learn more about what we’re building and how to get involved, visit the Room For All page on our website.