One of the largest food bank ‘SODO community market’ all set to inaugurate on Monday in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle. The food bank will be unique in design and offers a wide range of services.

Northwest Harvest, food bank developers say the community market is very unique and don’t even call the food pantry as a food bank.

CEO of Northwest Harvest, Thomas Reynolds said: “we arrived at community market.’ It has this sense of community orientation, a place where people come and have interaction as well as do their shopping.”

The food bank is dubbed as ‘SODO Community Market. This new market in Seattle’s neighborhood will definitely provide various food items to nearly 5,000 people per week, Reynolds expects.

Further, Reynolds mentioned: “We think as we transition into a community market model, it’s going to be even more popular with more demand.”

Cherry Street Food Bank was another food bank run by Northwest Harvest, earlier. The Cherry Street Food Bank was established 35 years back and will be replaced by the new SODO Community Market. Northwest Harvest says the property land was sold to a developer, recently.

The new food bank project is worth $1.8 million, looks similar to a small market in another area. The new market place is located on 4^th Ave at 1915, nearby to the corner of 4^th Ave S &S Holgate in Seattle’s SODO area. Full services will be offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to customers, respectively. The market also provides options for guest to shop for a wide range of food products. Further, family members will be allowed to buy child based food products.

The new market place is just a few steps away from the Metro bus stop and light rail line. The new community market plans for a grand opening, scheduled on June 24^th, 2019 Monday at 1:30 p.m.

Reynolds mentioned: “There’s a lot of informal housing. There’s a lot of people in need and not a lot of services, we wanted to fill that gap.”

Northwest Harvest stated they are planning to remove ideas such as ‘feeding the needy’ and ‘helping the hungry’ by building a community market that blurs the lines among grocery store and food bank.

 The consumers are going to shop for proteins, vegetables, grains fruits, and healthy products that they want to supply their family members and the customers will have no issues or any feeling of awkwardness as they move out through the door, Reynolds informed.

Customers thinking to use the store don’t need to sign in or be restricted to things they want to shop for, rather customers can walk in just as they walk at a usual grocery store.

The market place also offers a community place, and this place, according to Reynolds, could be used by several resource providers.

Reynolds stated this building is a place where customers can arrive and purchase the things they wish to and get back home with healthy grocery items and end their market journey here.

Market Opening Hours

The market working days with time mentioned below which might differ

• Monday Time from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Tuesday Closed
• Wednesday Timing from 8:a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
• Thursday Closed
• Friday Timing from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Customers thinking to extend their hand to support the SODO Community Market of Northwest Harvest can do so by contributing to ‘Serving Dignity, Building Community’ campaign.