MSC celebrates this year’s wins, braces for growing community needs

Published 7:30 am Sunday, November 30, 2025

Multi-Service Center (MSC) helps residents of South King County who are most vulnerable to accessing food, affordable housing, employment, energy assistance, immigrant and refugee outreach and education, long term care ombuds, rental assistance, resource navigation, and youth and young adult services.

This may seem like a long list of resources for one organization, but as one of the 30 Community Action Agencies in Washington State, MSC bases the services they offer on needs assessments that highlight what will impact community wellbeing the most.

This holistic resource model is especially appropriate right now as community members navigate rising healthcare costs, food insecurity and concern about access to benefits and more.

MSC is based in Federal Way but their service area focuses on South King County. Last year, they served over 110,000 people, which is more people than the total population of Federal Way.

CEO Kirsten York shared an update with the Mirror about what their staff are seeing in the communities they serve.

“We’re seeing a really broad impact right across all demographics, seniors, working individuals, families with kids. Just costs in general escalating, and the instability rising,” York said. This shows up as “concern for just meeting basic needs of medical care, food, housing, groceries, child care” and more.

Food needs in particular are often an indicator of rising financial pressures in other areas, York explained.

“If you view the household budget as a pie, and things like food get more expensive, or medical care either goes away or is highly impacted, then it’s a lot of strain on other parts of their budget,” York said.

Along with offering a wide variety of services, MSC has a practice of funding their programs through a wide variety of funding sources to support their sustainability, York said.

Ripple effects from funding interruptions around the country and the state have impacted services, but this year has still included wins for the organization, including the opening of 334 units of new workforce housing that opened in February of this year.

They were also able to open a new food bank location at the Redondo Heights housing complex which provides a more dignified and comfortable food pick up environment than typical models.

While they originally planned to keep their original food bank location at their headquarters open as well, funding issues required some tough choices.

The food bank is designed to function like a grocery store, referred to as the “market” model. Those in need of food can make an appointment to shop, then are able to take a grocery cart through and choose the foods they’d like to receive.

“Market-based food banks are just a really respectful, trauma informed way in which we can serve people with food,” York told the Mirror.

In contrast, visitors to the food bank in the past would have to stand in line outside even in cold weather, and for the most part, received whatever was handed to them, although MSC and volunteers worked hard to provide choice where they could and make it a positive experience.

In the new location, York expressed appreciation for the “many partners who have contributed to the space being really inviting and warm.”

One challenge this year has included a reduced volume of food donations coming from local grocery stores.

Two main reasons for this is that with food prices increasing, customers are shopping less, which leads the grocery staff to order lower quantities of product. These lower quantities lead to less expired food that is diverted to local food programs through local food rescue processes.

While tightening up ordering and reducing food waste would typically be seen as a positive, in this case it reduces the supply to food banks.

Another issue has been the closure of several large grocers in the area who had contributed to that flow of food donations.

Despite these challenges, community efforts to support MSC and other local resource providers in the area have made an impact, especially in the last month as concerns about SNAP rocked communities across the country.

In a letter to the community on their website, York said that “in October, our food bank saw a nearly 20% increase in clients accessing services. Food insecurity is faced by many – and SNAP provides stability and support. Without SNAP benefits, MSC’s food bank is a place to turn for food, resources, and kindness.”

In that time of need, she said that MSC is “extremely grateful for the outpouring of support for our food bank in the last few weeks with food donations, food drives, monetary donations, and advocacy. You all are showing up for your neighbors in these times.”