Getting to know the Foundation

Imagine your church applies for a modest loan to repair some equipment that you use to distribute food in your community. Instead of a loan, you get a check in the mail, with no strings attached. 

That’s what happened to Riverton Park UMC in Tukwila, WA. This small congregation is in a poor neighborhood near the SEA-TAC airport. In 2001, it was a founding partner of the Tukwila Pantry. In 2017, they distributed more than 1 million pounds of food to over 10,000 local families! A lot of this food is unsold produce, meat, and dairy from nearby grocery stores that the pantry picks up with a “grocery rescue” truck six days a week. This truck needed major repairs on its engine. So the leadership team wrote to the Northwest United Methodist Foundation to ask for a loan…