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What We Do

Pike Place Market Foundation

We support the heart of Pike Place Market – its people.

By helping our neighbors who work, learn and live in and around the Market, the Foundation’s mission is to nurture a thriving Market community.

Beyond the fish and flowers, Pike Place Market is a village of farmers, artists, residents and neighbors. With senior housing above the Market’s storefronts and a network of social services woven throughout the historic district, the Pike Place Market Foundation welcomes and supports a diverse community in the heart of downtown Seattle.

Established in 1982, after a decades-long fight to save Pike Place Market from the wrecking ball, the Market Foundation was established to fulfill the Market’s historic charter to provide services and support for our community, especially our neighbors living on low incomes. 

Rooted in our model for a healthy community, the Market Foundation improves the health and well-being of our neighbors by promoting and increasing access to education, nutritious food, community support, economic stability and a safe neighborhood. 

As a community foundation, we provide annual support and partnership to a network of social services in Pike Place Market in addition to operating our own programs and services through our community resource center, The Market Commons.  

Together, with the support of our staff, service partners, volunteers and donors, we are reaching our vision to nurture a healthy Pike Place Market community so that everyone within it can live their best life possible.


Our vision is to keep senior residents and Market workers stable by providing financial assistance and wraparound support during times of personal crisis. Our Community Safety Net is available to provide immediate relief to anyone who lives, works or accesses services in Pike Place Market. The resource desk at The Market Commons provides community support and resource referrals with a goal of achieving long-term economic stability.

We inspire a sense of connection for all members of the Market community. We help reduce isolation by welcoming everyone to The Market Commons, a low-barrier neighborhood center in the heart of Pike Place Market where residents, workers and neighbors can stop by for vital resources, social activities or even just to say “Hello!”. Members of the Senior Center participate in activities like dancing and watching films, all while connecting with fellow members, while Heritage House is an assisted living facility for the Market’s senior residents to age in-place.

Our vision is to ensure all working families in the Market community have the opportunity to maintain stable employment, while receiving the high-quality, affordable early childhood education. We invest in the Pike Market Child Care and Preschool, the only preschool in Seattle that operates on a sliding-scale tuition payment plan so that all families, regardless of income, can receive the best possible care and education for their young children.

Our vision is to reduce health inequalities in and around Pike Place Market by increasing social connections, reducing barriers to health care and improving access, education and advocacy for all members of our community. We partner with Neighborcare Health at Pike Place Market where patients collaborate with a team of medical, dental, mental health and substance abuse professionals to develop personal health improvement plans. No one is ever turned away due to a lack of insurance, income or immigration status.

Our vision is to support the health of our neighbors by providing increased access to the abundance of healthy food in Pike Place Market. Through our Food Access Program, we administer a variety of reduced price shopping programs, to encourage neighbors on fixed incomes to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from Market farmers and produce vendors. Thousands of our neighbors also rely on weekly shopping trips to the Pike Market Food Bank and free hot meals at the Pike Market Senior Center to meet their daily nutritional needs.

Our vision is to ensure that our neighborhood and built environment is safe, accessible and activated for everyone. Throughout our 38-year history, the Market Foundation has invested more than $15 million in private funds and secured more than $75 million in public funds to support the development and refurbishment of 600+ units of low-income housing, an accessible senior center, expanded preschool, medical clinic, food bank and most-recently a neighborhood center and community garden.


Our Impact



Legacy Partners are our long-standing partners in the Market community, often referred to as the “Five Families”. Since the early 1980s, the Market Foundation has dedicated consistent, unrestricted funding to allow our Market partners to sustain operations year-after-year and improve services in the Market community. We are not only a major funder of these programs, but we also collaborate to improve services and identify critical connections to improve the impact of the community as a whole.

Pike Market Food Bank

Pike Market Food Bank continued to expand their grocery delivery program ensure that homebound seniors had access to the groceries they needed. 

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Pike Market Childcare & Preschool

The Preschool in the Market continued to operate admidst COVID shutdowns, keeping families safe while also ensuring staff remained on payroll.

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Neighborcare Health at Pike Place Market

The Medical Clinic at the Market continued telehealth visits for patients and COVID-19 vaccination sites in downtown to reach vulnerable communities.

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Pike Market Senior Center

Pike Market Senior Center continued to provide case management support to seniors, especially those experiencing homelessness in downtown. The Senior Center also continued their expanded meal service to include a takeaway meal for dinner.

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Heritage House at the Market

The Assisted Living Facility for Seniors in the Market kept all staff and residents COVID-FREE in 2021.

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Our Programs



Our Community Impact Fund allows us to remain community-centered to improve access to essential services and resources that build upon our model for a healthy community. The Market Commons is home to an array of new and existing programs that enable us to reduce barriers to meet emerging service needs in our community. Working in collaboration with our partners throughout the Market and across the city we’re able to address the needs of our neighbors as they arise.

Food Access Program

Our Food Access Program brought weekly deliveries of meals and groceries to senior residents in isolation and helped Market workers afford fruits and vegetables at Market produce stands. 

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The Market Commons

The Market Commons resource staff reached senior residents by phone and video calls to stay connected during periods of isolation. Market community members also relied on resource staff to help navigate public benefits while facing cost of living increases and other challenges. 

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Community Safety Net

The Market Community Safety Net was available to help Market workers pay rent and other bills when income and other resources became scarce.

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Small Business Recovery Fund

Our Small Business Fund provided unrestricted grants to Market merchants and peer-to-peer business consulting to help them not only survive the fallout of the pandemic, but invest beyond it.

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Rachel's Reserve

Our emergency grant funds helped cover the cost of COVID-19 testing and vaccines for the Market community, as well as helped the Preschool continue operations after forced closures due to COVID cases.

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Rachel's Reserve

Special projects that make a positive impact on the neighborhood or built environment of the Market.

Visit Rachel's Reserve

Billie's Bank

We also fund and collaborate on small, community-driven projects that improve the health of the community and its members and inspire new relationships and connections.

Visit Billie's Bank