Local service providers have seen a sharp uptick in the numbers of families and individuals in need of financial assistance for rent, utilities and move-in assistance. The Crisis Clinic reports that emergency financial assistance is among the top three requests for community assistance it receives and the leading unmet need.

Your support of United Way of King County helped 9,516 low-income people maintain their housing through emergency financial assistance with rent, utilities or move-in expenses, and eviction and foreclosure prevention assistance.

Many people in this community who have been hit hard by the recession are the newly poor, and they don't know where to turn for help. But with United Way's Bridge to Basics program, help is within reach.

Bridge to Basics volunteers are helping people throughout the community access much needed benefits and services, and since the program started last year, they have connected more than 7,000 people to food stamps, children's health insurance, heat and utility assistance, and job training.

Thank you, Bridge to Basics volunteers >

• Due to the economic downturn, our local food bank system is seeing an unprecedented demand for services. Thanks to the generous financial gifts of United Way of King County donors, 59 hunger relief organizations have more refrigerators and freezers to store food and trucks to move it—increasing their ability to provide food to people in need.
• Increasing numbers of children are depending on food assistance. United Way donors provided weekend backpacks with meals each week during the school year for 426 students. You also provided 6,250 meals to children through two new summer meals programs.
• It can be extremely difficult for seniors and people with disabilities to get to the grocery store. With the help of United Way donors, 24,000 meals were delivered to homebound people.
• Each week, thousands of pounds of healthy produce go to waste before they can be distributed to the families in need. United Way's "Yes We Can" project saves that food by organizing volunteers to can the food and transporting it to food banks across King County. Thanks to United Way supporters, the program will produce half a million cans of food a year!
• United Way donors also made Food Lifeline's technology improvement project possible, which created a new database for food banks that will increase efficiency throughout King County's entire emergency food system.

Nearly 600 people participated in United Way's Hunger Action Week by taking the Hunger Challenge, which required people to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on a food stamp budget for the entire week. Many local food bloggers took the challenge and shared their experiences.

Thank you, Hunger Challenge food bloggers >

United Way of King County launched the Response for Basic Needs in November of 2008 to help those most vulnerable to the recession's effects. Thanks to an extraordinary outpouring of generosity, we've been able to aid overwhelmed food banks, support housing assistance programs and other services that help our neighbors in greatest distress.