Though this public health crisis has been scary, anxiety-provoking, and full of uncertainty, there have been moments of hope too. The past several days have been clear and sunny, and cherry and plum trees are blooming throughout the city. People are rising to the occasion and helping out those in need and there are little acts of kindness all around.

We wanted to put together some ideas for how to support each other and our community. We’re going to get through this together.

Supporting local restaurants:

Piroshky Piroshky owner Olga Sagan built a free platform, Catch22Delivery, for local businesses that are currently offering delivery and take-out. It makes it easy to find your favorite Seattle restaurants that deliver without third party fees. Read more on SeattleRefined here.

Sign the Seattle Restaurants United petition requesting relief for our beloved restaurant and bar community. Without significant and immediate financial assistance, many restaurants and bars will close permanently. Learn more about Seattle Restaurants United here.

People are posting about restaurants in the International District, including heartwarming stories about small businesses, and what’s open in this Facebook group.

Supporting music venues:

Washington Nightlife & Music Association needs you to call Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell & your U.S. Representative so live music venues (think Neumos, Barboza, High Dive, The Crocodile, and 30 others!) can survive in Washington. Learn more here.

STG Presents (Paramount, Moore & Neptune Theatres) had to postpone or cancel 53 performances in March 2020 alone. Thanks to STG’s Board of Directors and The Bradley Family Foundation, every donation will be matched 1:1, up to $380,000 total! Find more details and donate here.

Donate:

Organized by local brand Trilogia, Masks for Good is raising funds to get N95 masks to healthcare providers.

ArtsFund created the COVID-19 Arts Emergency Relief Fund to help stabilize the sector with immediate relief grants for arts organizations negatively impacted by COVID-19. It supports organizations in King County (Seattle) so they can maintain essential functions and retain core staff throughout the current public health crisis.

The Plate Fund is providing eligible restaurant-industry workers who live and work in King County $500 in immediate assistance. Donate to the fund to help with workers who have lost their jobs and rely on every paycheck to afford necessities like food, transportation, baby products and medicine.

The Seattle Hospitality Emergency Fund is raising money for workers who have lost their hours, jobs, or their restaurants or bars have closed.

Donate to Northwest Harvest’s Covid-19 Hunger Response Fund. Northwest Harvest is rapidly accelerating the distribution of healthy food to communities across the state and needs your help. Communities already struggling with poverty and access to services have the most difficulty meeting their basic needs in times of crisis.

Food Lifeline is another local organization with an immediate focus to increase food distributions to agency partners and meal program partners to help meet the growing need as quickly as possible.

FareStart is an amazing Seattle organization that provides work and life skills training to succeed in the foodservice industry—and in life. Though their brick and mortars are closed right now, they have been preparing and providing meals to individuals experiencing homelessness and low income seniors and families. They provided over 200k meals as of April 23. You can donate to their efforts here.

Here’s a fund organized by The London Plane, which supports sending meals to UW Medicine hospital staff (1,600 meals per day). They’ve been making meals since Wednesday, March 18.

Volunteer:

Donate blood with Bloodworks Northwest. Make sure to schedule your appointment online before heading in. They aren’t taking walk-ins right now.

Mutual Aid is matching volunteers with those in need. Fill out the form here if you’re interested.

Seattle Public Schools does not have current volunteer requests, but will as the need grows. There are some ideas on their website and check back for updates.

Write letters to the elderly in Washington State. Read more about the partnership between Woodinville’s Tinte Cellars and Northshore Senior Center and how to get started here.

Have other ideas?

Write us at info@seattleite.com

Updated April 27, 2020.
Originally published March 22, 2020.

This article has been updated 7/1/2020 to remove the Artist Relief Fund. They were able to grant over $5.3 million to the arts and cultural sector. Last week, the fund was closed in order to regroup and pivot toward other efforts to support arts and cultural organizations, and their workers and artists.