Follow the Food – Waste in Ballard is going out of style

By Asal Shahindoust and Stephannie Stokes

Looking closer into the community, two students discovered a chain of largely volunteer-run efforts working to intercept food on its way to a compost bin and redirect it to people in need. Each Ballard-based program forwards unused food to the next link in the chain, keeping the community afloat and reducing waste in the process. This video follows the food through the process and takes a look at the people who continue the cycle each week. The journey begins Sunday at the Ballard Farmers Market, where volunteers from the not-for-profit organization Sustainable Ballard gather unsold produce from local farmers, which they then cart over to the Ballard Food Bank.

The 40-year-old food bank, serving the Ballard, Magnolia and Queen Anne neighborhoods Monday through Thursday, provides food for over a thousand clients each week with the help of about 100 volunteers.

On the food bank’s final day, volunteers from Trinity United Methodist Church glean any unused food that could be used for its Saturday Soup program. Using primarily this food, the soup kitchen serves meals to the 50-60 people who arrive at the church doors each Saturday morning.