History

FEEST began in 2008 as part of the King County Food and Fitness Initiative, seeking a community and policy-driven approach to reversing health inequities in some of Seattle’s lowest-income and most diverse neighborhoods. We began with weekly dinners in the bustling community kitchen of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Delridge and quickly grew to be a staple of the center. After a number of successful years at Youngstown — including national replication work in New York, Oakland, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Detroit — FEEST made the strategic decision to move directly into two local high schools: Chief Sealth International High School in Delridge and Evergreen High School in White Center.

Over the years FEEST has worked to challenge the systems of oppression that impact our community’s relationship to food. FEEST youth identified and led projects in their schools and communities, including community-wide marketing campaigns to support healthy food choices, securing funding and support from school leadership for filtered water bottle filling stations at school, and leading a community mapping project to highlight young people’s solutions for the lack of access to healthy foods in the Delridge neighborhood.

Through our strategic planning process in 2016, FEEST identified school food as a pivotal opportunity for improving the health of young people in our community. Building on this foundation, our youth leaders achieved significant wins, including securing a student advisory committee in Highline Public Schools that brought culturally relevant, youth-designed menu items like Somali spaghetti and butternut squash curry to schools district-wide.

FEEST’s impact continued to grow.  In 2018, we expanded our programs into two new schools: Rainier Beach High School in South Seattle and Tyee High School in Seatac. Youth leaders designed a snack program providing free fruits and protein snacks at Chief Sealth High School, with plans to expand district-wide. We partnered with the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment to install water bottle filling stations at Rainier Beach and Chief Sealth High Schools, solving critical clean water access issues.

In 2020, FEEST stepped into organizing work, with a landmark victory: partnering with WA-BLOC and Black Minds Matter to successfully remove police from Seattle Public Schools. This campaign was deeply influenced by the national uprising for racial justice, following the tragic loss of George Floyd and others whose lives were impacted by police violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought additional challenges, forcing us to pause our dinner program on school campuses to prioritize the health and safety of our communities. This moment of disruption inspired a reflection on the needs of our students, who identified mental health and restorative justice as critical areas of focus. These experiences paved the way for FEEST’s transformative strategic planning process in 2021, where we shifted from youth advocacy to community organizing and broadened our vision to address holistic wellness in schools.

This shift is grounded in youth-led decision-making and intergenerational collaboration, emphasizing leadership development and movement-building.

Today, FEEST is not only addressing food justice but is also advancing holistic wellness in schools by connecting mental health and restorative justice to our ongoing campaigns. Our Student Organizers now lead impactful initiatives such as the Mental Health Campaign, creating spaces for systemic change that reflect the diverse needs of our communities.