Making A Difference Foundation

FOOD DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR!

Don’t have transportation to get to a food bank?
Busy with work, family, or other responsibilities and don’t have time to make the trip?

Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank can help. We deliver food directly to your home!

If you live in Pierce County or King County, you may sign up for our Home Delivery Program and receive food without having to travel to a food bank.

🏠 Home Delivery Available
📍 Serving Pierce & King Counties

Sign up today:
https://themadf.org/home-delivery/

Know a senior, family, neighbor, or friend who could benefit? Please share this post and help us spread the word!
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https://tacomaweekly.com/celebrating-the-life-of-leslie-badgely-p12549-197.htm

Celebrating the Life of Leslie Badgely Celebrating the life of Leslie Badgely, a dedicated leader in the hunger-relief community

Celebrating the Life of Leslie Badgely.

It is with great sadness that I share the passing of Leslie Badgely, my friend, colleague, mentor, and a deeply valued leader in the hunger-relief community.

When someone who has dedicated so much of their life to feeding others passes away, our community loses far more than a nonprofit leader. We lose wisdom. We lose compassion. We lose experience. And we lose someone who quietly made our neighborhoods stronger every single day.

That is the loss I felt when I learned of Leslie’s passing.

I had the privilege of meeting Leslie during the very first month after opening Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank on Tacoma’s Eastside. Her food bank was just down the hill from ours. At a time when Eloise’s Cooking Pot was new and still finding its place in the hunger-relief community, Leslie reached out to me.

She did not see us as competition. She welcomed us.

She simply asked, “What do you need, and how can I help?”

Those words meant more to me than she probably ever knew.

Through all the challenges of establishing and growing Eloise’s Cooking Pot on McKinley Avenue, Leslie remained one of my most consistent friends and supporters in this industry. She continued to encourage me, share her knowledge, and ask what she could do to assist.

For people outside the hunger-relief system, it may be difficult to understand how significant that was.

Most people assume that because food banks share the same mission, collaboration and camaraderie naturally follow. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Organizations often compete for the same limited grants, food donations, volunteers, warehouse space, partnerships, and public support. At times, the hunger-relief world can feel more like The Hunger Games than a coordinated effort to address hunger.

Leslie proved that it did not have to be that way.

She chose collaboration over competition.

She chose encouragement over comparison.

She chose generosity over scarcity.

Leslie had spent years working in this field, and she generously taught me how to navigate an arena that can be difficult and complicated. She shared lessons she had learned, offered practical advice, and was always willing to inspire and encourage me.

She understood something I believe every nonprofit leader should remember: another organization’s success does not diminish your mission. When another organization becomes stronger and serves more people, the entire community becomes stronger.

Some of my favorite memories of Leslie were not at formal meetings or conferences. They were the lunches we shared with her team at the fish restaurant in Harbor Freight House. We would sit, talk, laugh, discuss the challenges facing our organizations, and share our visions for serving people experiencing food insecurity.

We shared a heart for people.

We believed that feeding someone was about much more than putting food into a box or distributing groceries.

It was about dignity.

It was about compassion.

It was about hope.

And it was about making people feel seen.

Leslie was an incredible gift from God in my life. I remain deeply grateful that our paths crossed at such an important time in my own journey. She helped shape how I approached this work and demonstrated through her actions what true partnership and servant leadership can look like.

Her legacy will not simply be measured by pounds of food distributed, meals served, or the number of people who walked through the doors of her organization.

Her legacy also lives in the people she encouraged.

It lives in the leaders she mentored.

It lives in the organizations she strengthened.

And it lives in every person who learned from Leslie that there is enough room for all of us to serve.

As food insecurity continues to affect families throughout our communities, Leslie’s example is more important than ever. No single food bank, nonprofit, government agency, corporation, or foundation can solve hunger alone.

We need one another.

We need organizations willing to share resources, knowledge, opportunities, and relationships. Most importantly, we need leaders who recognize that the people we serve must always be more important than organizational competition.

Leslie understood that.

To Leslie’s family, thank you for sharing her with all of us. Please know that her impact reached far beyond the walls of her food bank. Her kindness, wisdom, friendship, and generosity helped strengthen other organizations and other leaders—including me.

I pray that God surrounds your family with peace, comfort, and strength during this transition.

I will forever be thankful that Leslie chose to welcome me, encourage me, teach me, and walk alongside me on this journey of addressing food insecurity.

The best way we can honor her life is not simply by remembering what she accomplished.

We can honor her by continuing what she modeled.

May we collaborate instead of compete.

May we encourage instead of discourage.

May we share rather than protect what we have.

And may we always remember that the ultimate purpose of this work is not to build organizations—it is to build stronger communities and serve people with dignity and love.

Leslie Badgely lived that example.

Her friendship was a gift.

Her leadership was a gift.

And her legacy is one I will carry with me forever.

Ahndrea L. Blue, Esq.
President and CEO
Making A Difference Foundation

🎓 Celebrating Our 2026–2027 Scholarship Recipients! 🎓

Making A Difference Foundation is proud to celebrate 12 outstanding scholarship recipients who are continuing their educational journeys at colleges and universities across the country.

This year, we are honored to award $29,000 in scholarships to help these remarkable students pursue their dreams, advance their education, and build brighter futures.

We believe education is more than an individual investment—it is an investment in families, neighborhoods, and generations to come.

Investing in education. Empowering futures. Building stronger communities.

Congratulations to each of our 2026–2027 scholarship recipients! We are incredibly proud of you and excited to see where your education, determination, and leadership will take you. 💙🎓✨

A heartfelt THANK YOU to our donors, partners, and supporters. Your generosity makes opportunities like these possible.

“Investing in students today is investing in stronger communities tomorrow.” — Ahndrea Blue, Founder & President/CEO

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🍑 A Heartfelt Thank You to Carson & His Family! ❤️

Today we want to recognize Carson and his wife for registering their new residential gleaning site and donating 21 pounds of fresh plums to Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank!

Your generosity means fresh, healthy fruit will reach families in our community instead of going to waste. We also appreciate your commitment to cleaning up fallen fruit and helping reduce food waste by using yard waste bins or repurposing it for animal feed.

A special thank you for your continued service as firefighters. Your dedication to protecting our community doesn’t stop when your shift ends—it continues through acts of kindness like this.

Together, we are feeding our neighbors, reducing waste, and making a difference—one donation at a time.

💚 Thank you for being part of the Gleaning Program and helping nourish our community!