Teen Feed

Teen Feed works with the community to offer support to meet basic needs, build strong relationships, and ally with homeless youth as they meet their future off the streets. With the tremendous support of the community, Teen Feed responds to the most basic needs of homeless youth through three main programs: Nightly Meal Program, Street Talk Outreach Program (+drop-in), and Service Links for Youth (youth resource navigation).

Since 1987, Teen Feed has tailored its services to the hundreds of homeless youth and young adults (YYA) between the ages of 13 and 25 who frequent Seattle’s University District. As the threshold social service agency for many homeless YYA, our mission is to offer support to meet basic needs, build strong relationships, and ally with youth as they meet their future off the streets.

The Teen Feed meal acts as an axis point for homeless and street-involved YYA to connect with the supportive services they need to achieve stability. Teen Feed works to meets the needs of YYA through our three integrated programs:

1. Teen Feed Meal Program: The Meal Program provides homeless youth with nutritious food, respite, and support at three locations: Seattle's University District, Auburn, and Rainier Beach. Over a warm meal, staff and volunteers link youth with the resources and services they need to achieve stability.

2. Service Links for Youth (youth resource navigation): In complement to our Meal Program, our Youth Services Specialist work to provide crisis intervention services (referrals to shelter, warm clothing, bus tickets, family reunification) and to meet basic needs like mailing addresses, help obtaining a state identification, employment referrals, housing, and more.

3. Street Outreach: In complement to our Meal Program, our Street Talk Outreach Program (STOP) proactively and preventatively reaches out to the most isolated homeless youth to address and reverse the negative impacts of street-life. STOP does this by connecting with youth in their own environment—the streets, alleys, and parks where they hang out—even before they are willing to approach adults for help and offers them warm coffee, granola bars, new socks, the nightly meal schedule, and support service information.

In 2023, Teen Feed:

• Provided 19,400 nutritious volunteer-led meals to hungry youth
• Connected with over 453 Individual Unique Guests (27% NEW guests, with 13% under 18 years old)
• Partnered with 2,000+ individual volunteers from various communities (corporate, civic, education, faith groups) who engage in meal programs, kitchen support, and other volunteer roles at Teen Feed
• Donated 11,000+hours of volunteer labor worth $319,134
• Leveraged over $750,000 in donated food, basic needs items, and related in-kind contributions
• Made 9,542 Outreach contacts to youth on the streets
• Provided 472 provider referrals, and one-on-one support coordinator for youth including mailing address, state ID, employment, healthcare, and housing