Work continues on new food bank

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Construction of the new Vashon Food Bank is well underway, marking a major step toward replacing a facility that staff say no longer meets the island’s needs.

The new building — roughly 3,900 square feet with tall shed-style ceilings, skylights and expanded warehouse space — began construction in July 2025 on the grounds of the Vashon United Methodist Church. Completion is expected in early 2026.

An additional 3,500-square-foot building on the property, purchased last year, will serve as office and collaborative space for the food bank and partner social-service agencies. Together, the two structures will create a centralized hub designed to streamline services for hundreds of island households.

The move will end the food bank’s decades at Sunrise Ridge, where it has operated for nearly 40 years out of the old former Nike missile site building.

“The facilities themselves are falling apart,” Emily Scott, the food bank’s executive director, said on a recent tour of the new space. The current food bank, she added, “doesn’t offer the dignity, access, or a safe experience that we think [people] deserve.”

Scott said the Sunrise Ridge site’s gravel, often-muddy lot and limited indoor space have made the location increasingly impractical. Before Sunrise Ridge, the food bank operated in the basement of the Presbyterian Church, which it left after the space became overwhelmed.

The new location is far closer to town, transit and other essential services, but still offers privacy for shoppers.

Although the building sits just off Vashon Highway SW, the primary entrance is positioned on the east side of the property and largely out of view.“You can kind of barely see it,” Scott said, noting that maintaining a discreet entry remains important for many visitors.

“By pretty much every single metric, this is a better facility,” Scott said.

The new site also offers significantly more parking, including expanded ADA-accessible spaces.

It sits directly on the bus line and within easy reach of the pharmacy, library and nearby grocery stores — a key benefit, Scott said, because most shoppers do not get all of their groceries from the food bank and often need to combine errands.

Once open, the new food bank will accommodate at least 10 shoppers with carts at a time — double current capacity.

The shed-style building features very tall ceilings and an open layout, which Scott said was chosen for both its efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Storage space will increase significantly, supported by two large garage-style doors that open directly into the warehouse for easier loading and movement of goods. Indoor waiting areas will also keep visitors out of the rain — a notable shift from the lines that often form outside the Sunrise Ridge building.

The expanded square footage will also allow for safer circulation of food donations, refrigeration units and volunteer traffic — all challenges at the cramped Sunrise Ridge site.

Natural light will be a defining feature, Scott said, with high ceilings, big windows and skylights. “It will just be this kind of nice, open, welcoming and safe inclusive space,” she said.

Islander Annie Miksch echoed the sentiment during the tour, saying, “This has a nice feeling of being open.”

Scott said the new space could reduce stigma and draw in residents who may have avoided the current site — particularly seniors on fixed incomes who, she said, might approach the Sunrise Ridge building, see its condition and think, “I don’t see myself using this space.”

“I think of the island as being more separated, from various socioeconomic situations, but we still have a lot of folks — rural poverty doesn’t show,” Miksch said.

Scott also anticipates some changes in service patterns. The food bank currently provides about 130 home deliveries weekly and serves roughly 300 households. Increased accessibility may encourage more people to shop in person.

Part of a larger vision

The move follows years of planning, permitting and fundraising work, much of it unfolding behind the scenes as costs rose and designs were refined.

The church property was chosen after more than a decade of reviewing alternatives — including the K2 Building, land behind Granny’s Attic and Vashon Market IGA, additional Sunrise Ridge parcels and the DIG property.

Each came with significant limitations, Scott said, while the church site offered access, visibility, the right zoning and the chance to co-locate other social-service providers. The long-term site agreement with the church provides stability for the food bank and supports plans for expanded programming.

County permits for the project were secured in 2025 after a competitive search for a contractor, which the food bank repeated when initial cost estimates climbed. Construction began shortly after King County signoff.

Construction funding comes from private donors, state and federal allocations, grants and the food bank’s capital campaign, support that has grown steadily as the organization moved through design and permitting milestones. The organization has raised 88% of its $7.25 million goal, with more fundraising expected as construction enters later phases.

Scott said the new site is designed to support multiple social-service providers in one place. The food bank expects to share space with groups offering early childhood education, resource navigation and other programming.

The co-location strategy stems from years of collaboration with the Vashon Social Service Network — including VYFS, The DOVE Project, Vashon Senior Center, Vashon HouseHold and others — all of whom support the new hub model.

She said the goal is for people to come for one service — such as a parenting class — and discover they can also pick up groceries, reducing barriers and normalizing use of the food bank. Overlapping services, she said, helps reduce stigma.

The food bank also plans to eventually add public art or a mural and hopes to install solar panels once construction wraps.

Scott said the transition to the new building will take adjustment for shoppers, volunteers and staff. While they will miss the sweeping Mount Rainier view at Sunrise Ridge, little else from the old site will be missed.

As with any move, she expects some growing pains — the kind of “Why is this here?” moments that come with settling into a new space — even when it’s custom-built.

Despite the scale of construction, the food bank does not expect major disruptions to grocery services, Scott said. If any temporary (one- to two-week) interruptions arise, the food bank plans to use contingency strategies to keep groceries flowing to customers.

To learn more about the project, visit tinyurl.com/y9hnsuhc.