OSL Serves is a 36 year organization that creates, delivers, and serves, nutritionally dense, culturally relevant, and medically sensitive meals, to people needing nutritional assistance throughout the greater Seattle area.
Since our inception in September of 1989 through December 31st, 2024, OSL has delivered approximately 21.5 million meals.
We are instrumental in advocating, supporting, and creating an equitable food system for all.
Our Mission
“To provide dignity, care and compassion through action, with the example that each person can make a difference.
To educate and advocate acceptance and understanding of each other’s differences.
To ultimately bring about the realization that we are all a vital part of this world and with extended effort
put an end to homelessness, hunger and hatred."
help us continue this work
In May of 2024, we moved into our own state-of-the-art kitchen after working for 35 years in hosted environments!
We completed renovations on a 13,000 square foot warehouse in Seattle, allowing us to do all our meal production in one enormous and fabulous commercial kitchen! With a 37 1/2 foot hood we are equipped to prepare 12,000+ meals each day! The build-out also includes frozen, cold, and dry storage for the emergency meal system throughout Seattle.
2025 Annual Report
37 years ago, OSL Serves began with the delivery of 30 organic lunches, handed out on a street corner in Pioneer Square. Since 1989, this one day project has turned into the delivery of more than 20 million meals served to those needing nutritional assistance in the greater Seattle area.
MEALS AND PROGRAMS: In 2025, OSL Serves prepared, delivered, and served, 1.6 million no cost, nutrient dense, culturally relevant meals to those needing nutritional assistance in Seattle, and throughout King and Pierce Counties.
Serving 68 programs, OSL meals were enjoyed in shelters and transitional housing programs, permanent supportive housing, recovery centers, tiny house villages, elder, youth, and children’s programs, veterans day programs, community court programs, City sanctioned encampments, OSL’s OPEN MEAL SITE (OMS), and several other programs needing support. Our deliveries range from North Seattle, across Lake Washington to the East-side, and all the way down south to Lacey, Washington. We continue to expand to where we are needed!
FOOD RECOVERY and DONATIONS
In 2025, our Food in Motion program (FIM) and Warehouse Team procured, recovered, and redistributed 2,073,599 pounds or 1037 TONS of food, to those struggling with hunger in the greater Seattle area, and the meal programs that serve their needs.
600,099 pounds were recovered through our Food In Motion (FIM) program, from 33 corporate donor partners:
Valued conservatively at $3.99 per pound: $2,394,395.01.
599,883 pounds came through our friends at Food Lifeline, the City of Seattle Nutritional Support Program, The Emergency Food Program, and Northwest Harvest.
67,683 of those pounds were funded by the City of Seattle for the SNAP emergency, in November 2025 which our FIM program and Warehouse team delivered to 40 meal provider programs throughout Seattle.
554,683 donated or recovered pounds were delivered and shared with Meal Providers, Food Banks, and other Human Service agencies.
2025 PURCHASED POUNDS:
Total purchased pounds for OSL in 2025: 873,617
Total spent on purchased pounds in 2025: $1,376,336.83
44,493 pounds of organic fruit was purchased by OSL from our friends at Cliffside Orchard in Kettle Falls WA. OSL donated this beautiful fruit to several food banks and meal programs located in the economically challenged far Eastern corner of WA State. They were delighted and grateful.
We currently purchase 8,000 pounds of protein every three days, 16,000 pounds of produce every 5 days, and 4000 pounds of dry goods, oil and spices, weekly.
VOLUNTEERS:
OSL hosted 2,201 volunteers in 2025, who contributed 5,767.15 hours. Wow! These hours are valued at the 2025 Washington State Volunteer rate of $41.70 an hour or $240,490.15. The National overall 2025 volunteer rate is $34.79 an hour. We LOVE our volunteers!
Meals Partnership Coalition (https://www.mealspartnership.org) is a program of OSL Serves that represents and supports more than 50 meal programs in the greater Seattle area. OSL built a 20 by 50 foot freezer/refrigerator into our warehouse for MPC members cold and frozen storage with a grant provided by Seattle City Council, championed by Seattle City Council Member, Joy Hollingsworth. Thank you! We also provide dry good storage and delivery services to MPC members. Meal providers supply life-saving resources to those in need of nutritional support. There is a meal provider in your neighborhood! They need you support.
In 2025 OSL’s Administrative cost was 5.43% We currently have 71 staff members: 67 are direct service, 3 are administrative. We plan on increasing our Admin Staff in 2026.
Total cost of the OSL service program in 2025: $12,937,628.49
Total OSL expenditures in 2025. $13,782,622.12.
OSL is considered the largest meal provider program in the State of Washington, yet we still work without fanfare, mostly under the radar, and with a whole lot of love. Come visit us for a tour!