Staff Spotlight: Lily Cowen

By Jade Fisher, Communications Specialist

On any given Wednesday, Ballard Food Bank’s warehouse is bustling with energy in the back corner near a large open door. Collegial volunteers gather around tables piled with crates of produce, canned dry goods, and nutritious snacks. The volunteers flank the warehouse tables and walk toward one end, filling white plastic bags with fruits, snacks, and easy-to-prepare meals as they go. Leading the effort is Lily Cowen, our wonderful Food Access Coordinator here at Ballard Food Bank. Lily has been with Ballard Food Bank since March of 2023.

Food Access Coordinator Lily outside the warehouse

Lily says she was drawn to her role at the food bank because it was adjacent to her previous work in farming for donation and working with children through farm education. In her current role, she runs the Weekend Food For Kids program and says it allows her to have a stronger impact in the community.

Her average week follows the same rhythm. At the beginning, she works with four teams of volunteers to pack bags (600 dry bags and 300 cold bags). The largest pack is on Wednesday afternoons. By Thursday, she’s helping load bags into volunteers’ vehicles who bring them to school on Friday for distribution.

Lily explains, “There is a constant flow of food into and out of the warehouse for this program as our first delivery for next week’s menu shows up after the bags have been picked up on Thursday afternoons.”

This program serves students enrolled in one of the 20 Seattle Public Schools in our service area of Northwest Seattle. These bags are intended to fill the two-day gap for children who rely on food at school throughout the weekdays. Weekend Food For Kids serves students of all ages. The biggest demographic of students enrolled in the program is elementary schoolers. The philosophy of the program is to keep meals accessible and nutritious-- easy enough for a five-year-old in Kindergarten to prepare!

Since Lily joined Ballard Food Bank, Weekend Food For Kids has grown by 11% and serves four times as many no cook bags as when she started. Over the course of 2023, the program distributed 21,094 bags to students in our service area. Lily’s leadership and expertise is essential to this program. We are so lucky to have her talents at Ballard Food Bank and we are incredibly proud of the work she does with volunteers and local schools to bring students in Northwest Seattle the nourishing meals they need to grow, learn and thrive.