FAN joined Cascade Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Sunnyslope Church at the June 3 Wenatchee Pride Festival last weekend. See statewide Pride events and a new Protecting Pride guide below.

We enjoyed our final Spring Summit last Sunday, with people from across the state joining online plus a room of advocates in person in Southwest Washington, to hear FAN updates and connect across issues and regions in small groups. We are grateful to the 90 FAN advocates who joined our May and June summits to engage with FAN and the issues that motivate us to take action. Their input and priorities will help inform our planning for the year ahead. Following these statewide meetings, we look forward to gathering in person with you across the state in cluster groups during this summer and fall. Contact us if you’re interested in helping convene your cluster!

This Sunday, June 11, FAN will celebrate our 12th anniversary! As we move into our teens, your partnership and financial support are key for continuing to strengthen our movement. Your engagement with FAN helps build our statewide network, and makes love and justice tangible in our communities. Help us celebrate our anniversary with a Solidarity Gift before Sunday:

• GIVE ONLINE: Make a gift between now and June 11 at FANWA.org using the Donate button. We have raised almost $10,000 so far, nearly half way to our goal of $20,000. Help us get there this week!
  
• BY MAIL: Contribute by sending a check to FAN at PO Box 80663, Seattle, WA 98108, where every dollar immediately helps support our work for justice!
• WORKPLACE GIVING: Does your employer offer a match? FAN is a 501(c3) nonprofit eligible for workplace giving through many corporate platforms. Let us know!
• PLANNED GIVING: There will always be a need for faith voices and actions in solidarity. Consider FAN in your planned giving. Please see our planned giving page and consider how your own plans align with FAN’s commitment to the common good.

Building on the incredible legislative victories we achieved this year, there is much to do in the year ahead. Your gift sustains our capacity to join in planning meetings and public witness when needed in our communities. Your support helps us stand in solidarity and raise our statewide voices. We give thanks for you!

Faith Action Network is delighted to be chosen to host an ELCA (Lutheran) Hunger Advocacy Fellow for 2023-2024. In our work with ELCA Advocacy, we serve as the State Public Policy Office (SPPO) for Washington and collaborate nationwide with more than 20 other state advocacy offices. This position will be based in the FAN office and work collaboratively with other fellows, states, and the DC office. Applications will be reviewed as they are received at this link. Please apply by June 30; position begins September 5.

There is still time to let your Congress members know that you care about impacts on hunger and nutrition in the Farm Bill. Let your voice be heard to advocate for increasing food security.

Take action for the Farm Bill at this link today to ask Congress to prioritize food assistance programs in the reauthorization of the Farm Bill. Personalize your letter with a few lines about your own experience or someone you know who is affected by food insecurity. It just takes two minutes to send three letters to your representative and senators.

As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Farm Bill, they have an opportunity to build more equitable and sustainable food systems in the U.S. and abroad by strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance programs. To learn more about the Farm Bill and its impacts, see our national advocacy partners’ webpages:

• ELCA Advocacy
  
• Mazon
  
• Bread for the World
  
• Food Research and Action Center
  

Join FAN in signing onto an organizational statement with our Anti-Hunger & Nutrition Coalition partners to support removing work requirements for SNAP from the Farm Bill through H.R. 1510, a bill before Congress. Sign on here. The debt ceiling bill expanded SNAP work-reporting requirements for up to 700,000 very-low-income, older adults, despite their limited work opportunities. The new requirements will make it more difficult for low-income people to find and keep jobs, provide for their children, and care for aged or disabled family members. These policies take food off the tables of those who grapple with deep structural barriers to stable employment, and they will increase hunger and poverty for tens of thousands of low-income Washingtonians. We will keep you posted on the progress or action needed on H.R. 1510 (Improving Access to Nutrition Act) to end work requirements for all SNAP households.

We are happy to share with you below a sampling of Pride events that FAN will join, and where you can march and celebrate with other faith communities to share a message of love and belonging. In response to the current reactionary narrative spreading division and hate in some of our communities, we encourage everyone in our network to use this important Protecting Pride guide, recently released by the Western States Center, when planning or participating in Pride activities.

Please share your events with us, and we will also share multi-faith images of welcome and belonging as we see them on social media. We wish you all safe and joyous Pride celebrations!

FAN is honored to co-sponsor, with community partners, an incredible musical celebration of Juneteenth in the Seattle area! Please join us for Songs of Black Folk 2023 on June 18 at 7pm at the historic Paramount Theatre in Seattle. As a celebration for Juneteenth, this fine arts performance was a hit in 2022 and promises to be even more powerful this year. Get your tickets at SongsofBlackFolk.org.
Check our social media for postings of other statewide celebrations of Juneteenth.

Here are two national resources for our shared organizing against white Christian nationalism. As hate and violence surface in various ways across our state, we will also share information about locally led efforts to work together:

This Sunday, June 11: Faithful America encourages churches nationwide to preach sermons that address white Christian Nationalism. Find more information and resources here.

The Kairos Center and MoveOn Education Fund have released a new report: All of U.S.: Organizing to Counter White Christian Nationalism and Build a Pro- Democracy Society.

Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW is requesting recommendations for any lower-priced apartments, an auxiliary dwelling unit at a house, or a basement unit at a house for two Honduran asylum seekers. The Jewish community has been assisting a young Honduran asylum seeker for more than two years. His younger brother joined him here a few months ago. The brothers need to move out of their host home at the end of June. If you have any leads on affordable housing possibilities, please contact: Michelle Mentzer, michelle.mentzer2@gmail.com, (425) 829-6861

FAN celebrates Pride with you all month long. We appreciate faith communities that provide a presence of love and inclusion during Pride activities across our state. Here are a few events we want to highlight:

Friday, June 9, Spokane Falls Two-Spirit Powwow. Learn more here.

Saturday, June 10, Yakima Pride. Learn more here.

Saturday, June 10, Spokane Pride. Learn more here.

Sunday, June 25, Seattle Pride. Learn more here.

Wednesday, June 28, Concerned Clergy of Olympia: Interfaith Pride Gathering. Learn more here.

Saturday, July 8, Pasco. Tri-Pride. Learn more here.

Saturday, July 8, Noon-8pm, Vancouver. Pride in the Park at Esther Short Park  Learn more here.

Friday, June 16, 12:15pm, in person, McGraw Square, Westlake Avenue & Stewart Street, Seattle. Justice for Janitors Day. Come advocate for janitor and immigrant rights, and for full workplace staffing to achieve a safe and respectful workplace. Register here.

Saturday, June 17, Noon-4:00pm, in person, Martin Luther King Junior Park, S 8th Street, Yakima. Yakima County NAACP Presents: Juneteenth, Celebrating Freedoms. Freedom Ride Caravan will leave at 11:30am from the Central Lutheran Church parking lot. Find out more here.

Sunday, June 18, 7:00pm, in person, Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine Street, Seattle. Songs of Black Folk. SBF is a world-class fine arts musical production that features African American talent. Purchase tickets here.

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