St. Leo’s Food Connection received a $15,000 appropriation from the Tacoma City Council

With a unanimous vote on Tuesday night, the Tacoma City Council appropriated $15,000 from its discretionary fund to St. Leo’s Food Connection program to assist a pilot program with Tacoma Public Libraries.

The $15,000 in funds will come from the Council Contingency Fund that they get to disperse at the its discretion. St. Leo’s will use the money to fund purchase snacks and meals at programs backed by Tacoma Public Libraries. One of the programs that the libraries are currently running with the food pantry is Summer Meals at the Main Library. This pilot will also fund healthy snacks at a total of three of the city’s libraries.

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While this money will help the pilot program, that’s all it the city has currently allocated. The $15,000 is a one-time distribution that will allow St. Leo’s, the libraries, and the city to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot.

This appropriation, and pilot program, is one of the responses that the city government is engaging in as a result of the cuts to the SNAP program as part of president Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” back in 2025. St. Leo’s has seen an increase in the number of families and children utilizing their food pantries since the federal support was rolled back. But it’s not just the pantry, library staff had started to report an increase in children and youth that were looking for snacks; it go to the point where staff were purchasing snack stuffs to hand out to kids with their own money to help.

Spokane fires

The City of Spokane has made the decision to utilize its H.O.M.E Starts Here Fund to assist victims of the wildfires that have torched the city. This fund will assist with short- & long-term rent, diapers, baby formula, back to school supplies, basic house ware needs, furniture and other household needs as families try to rebuild their lives. As the city and its residents are working through the recovery process, the city will forgo it’s typical administrative fee so that 100% of each donation will go to those in need.

If you want to donate to this fund, click here.