Food pantries and free meals near you, closest first

City and county pages, the food help pages and the conversation now list the food pantries and meal sites closest to you, with their hours and whether they are open now.

When you are hungry today, you need the food pantry or free meal down the street, not only the regional food bank. Front Door now lists them, closest first.

• More than 3,600 food pantries, meal sites, mobile pantries and free grocery markets, in the 100 largest cities and across Florida. Seattle has 96 of them, including Byrd Barr Place, Rainier Valley Food Bank, University District Food Bank, Ballard Food Bank, North Helpline, West Seattle Food Bank, Pike Market Food Bank and Queen Anne Food Bank.
• Where a city or state publishes its own list, we use it first: the City of Seattle’s food bank and meal list, the City of Philadelphia’s free food sites, New York City’s Community Food Connection list and Florida’s emergency food sites. Everywhere else we read each food bank’s own list and each pantry’s own website. Every card says where we read it and when.
• City and county pages have a new section, “Food near you”, closest to the center of the city first. Each card shows whether it is open now or later today, in the place’s own time zone, the days and times, who can come and what to bring, with Call and Directions. Type your ZIP code to sort them from where you are.
• Ask “food in Seattle” or “free groceries 98144” and the answer starts with the closest pantries and meal sites, then the food bank for the area, then the food programs you can apply for. A place farther away never shows above a closer one. Ask for “hot meals” and you get meal sites; ask for “groceries” and you get pantries.
• Local first, for every kind of help: when we know where you are, the places you can go (food sites, local offices and nonprofits) come before the state’s programs, then the federal ones.
• Each state’s Food page has a “Find food near you” box that takes a ZIP code, and each state’s kinds of help pages list the local nonprofits before the state’s programs.
• Our coverage now counts food pantries and meal sites.
• Hours change. Where a list gives days but not times, the card says so and asks you to call first. We never guess a time.