Who We are
The Meals Partnership Coalition has roots that go back more than 30 years as the hot meal committee of the Seattle Food Committee for food banks. In 1998 meal providers made the decision to form a coaltion that represented the significant work done in the community by meal providers, serving the needs of those who are unable to access food from a food bank. Those requiring meal assistance often do not have storage, kitchens, or the ability to prepare their own meals. MPC supports the work of Seattle non-profit meal providers through sharing resources and information to better serve the nutritional needs of our vulnerable community members.
Our members include meal programs, local leaders, concerned community members, and other essential agencies within the over-all emergency food system. While supporting our members we also understand and honor the specific needs of the vulnerable community members who access meal programs in order to meet their daily nutritional needs.
In 2006 began what we knew would be a long term educational campaign on the importance of nutritionally dense, culturally appropriate, safe food, for all community members, but in particular, those who are hunger challenged. The Eat Real Food campaign guides all of the work that we do as a community, and is based on the belief all people have the right to safe and nutritious food. Within the Eat Real Food campaign we focus on access to foods that are chemically safe and nutritionally wholesome. To learn more about this campaign please see our Eat Real Food page. This is a long term educational campaign and continues to be essential.
MPC provides special educational trainings for our community including our annual Meals for Many training which educates meal providers and community groups on how to provide large batch meals in an effective manner, nutrition education seminars that are open to the public providing information on nutrition and food safety, connecting coalition meal provider members with food/financial donors, representing the interests and needs of emergency meal providers at the local and state government levels, partnering with other organizations working in the emergency food system to better serve the needs of our community members, and monthly meetings open to all our stakeholders.
Our goal is to insure that the organizations doing the front line work of nutritional support for those needing meal assistance have the tools, resources, and stability, to continue their life-saving service.