WHITE CENTER — When Joy Henderson realized she could work at her local food bank through AmeriCorps, the opportunity seemed meant to be.
She was already volunteering a bit at the White Center Food Bank and was considering a career change after losing a job. AmeriCorps, the federal government’s service agency, connects people like Henderson with community gigs and gives them modest stipends in lieu of wages.
“I love helping out,” said the 43-year-old, who started working at the food bank full time last year, stocking shelves, organizing inventory, packing bags and coordinating home deliveries. “I feel like I’m making a difference.”
But Henderson’s AmeriCorps experience is coming to an abrupt end because President Donald Trump’s administration last month decided to immediately terminate nearly $400 million in grants to the decades-old service agency, alleging fiscal mismanagement.
The grants targeted by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, represent 41% of AmeriCorps’ annual budget and affect about 32,000 corps members across the country, advocates estimate.
According to Gov. Bob Ferguson, that includes about 1,300 members at approximately 800 sites in Washington, which joined other states last week in suing over the move. The cuts total more than $21 million in Washington, per Ferguson. It’s not yet clear exactly how many corps members have been spared; Washington officials are still collecting information, they say.
Henderson learned her position was getting eliminated in an email that arrived late on April 25, a Friday. She was relaxing on her couch after a long week working in White Center Food Bank’s bustling warehouse.
“It was so upsetting,” she said. “Like the rug got ripped out from under me.”
How it works
Established under President Bill Clinton in 1993 to get more Americans involved in community service, AmeriCorps supports about 200,000 participants each year, including more than 100,000 in the agency’s programs for older adults and about 50,000 in its traditional programs. Some members are placed at their community sites through state service agencies.
Most are recent college graduates and retirees, but you don’t need a college degree to join AmeriCorps and you don’t need job experience.
Although there are multiple AmeriCorps programs with different designs, the basic idea is to score a double win: Provide community organizations with low-cost assistance while providing corps members with meaningful gigs.
AmeriCorps members help at food banks, tutor in schools, care for veterans, respond to disasters, tend to forests, and perform many other tasks. Until last month, they were active in at least 32 of Washington’s 39 counties.
Some AmeriCorps grant recipients, such as United Way of King County, place corps members at smaller organizations, like the food bank in White Center.
Direct-service corps members, like Henderson, receive living allowances, which can range from $18,700 to $37,400 per year, plus health benefits, said Sara Seelmeyer, a United Way associate director. United Way pays $37,400, she said. That’s roughly equivalent to the minimum wage in Washington.
Washington’s situation
In Washington, AmeriCorps members serve at a wide assortment of community sites, ranging from Asian Counseling and Referral Service in Southeast Seattle and Orcas Island Food Bank in the San Juan Islands to Gonzaga University in Spokane and public schools in Walla Walla.
About 250 corps members placed through the state’s service agency were working until last month. Due to Trump’s cuts, they’re no longer being paid.
AmeriCorps members are still working as health navigators and birth doulas at multiple Sea Mar Community Health Centers, said Michael Leong, senior vice president at the Washington organization that specializes in Latino patients. Sea Mar is using nonfederal dollars to keep its members around until their service terms end in June, Leong said. But the Trump reductions could stop Sea Mar from bringing on its next AmeriCorps cohort, he said.
Literacy Source in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood has lost funding for AmeriCorps members who teach citizenship and computer classes, executive director Shira Rosen said. Rosen is baffled by the Trump cuts, she said, considering all the positive things participants do for modest pay.
“AmeriCorps help hundreds of communities across Washington with critical services,” Ferguson said in a statement, calling the Trump administration’s move a “cruel and shortsighted decision.”
In addition to canceling AmeriCorps grants, the Trump administration has put most of the agency’s staff members on leave and initiated layoffs.
Trump wields “the legal right to restore accountability to the entire executive branch,” a White House spokesperson told The Washington Post, citing failed audits and improper payments by AmeriCorps.
The lawsuit by Washington and two dozen other states argues Trump and DOGE are effectively shuttering an agency created and funded by Congress.
The Trump administration’s “abrupt decision to dismantle AmeriCorps” usurps the power of the purse held by Congress and violates the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers, the lawsuit says. The president can ask Congress to abolish AmeriCorps but “cannot simply terminate the agency’s functions by fiat,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said.
White Center
Most of United Way’s corps members, like Henderson at White Center Food Bank, are supposed to serve through August. The nonprofit is using other funds to keep them working for a month but will have to let them go after that, Seelmeyer said. United Way planned to hire 60 more corps members to serve summer meals to kids; that can’t happen now, she said.
Henderson is still wrapping her head around the AmeriCorps grant cancellations. She wanted to extend her service for a second year, hoping to build experience for a nonprofit career; now she isn’t sure what to do.
She should be OK moneywise, because her husband has a job and they live with his mother. But many AmeriCorps members aren’t as lucky, so Henderson is thinking about them. Some may end up at the food bank where she worked last Friday, dropping apples and onions into delivery bags.
“Today we’re adding eggs, which is really nice,” she said. “No one should have to worry where their next meal is going to come from.”
Losing AmeriCorps will be a blow, said Carmen Smith, executive director at White Center Food Bank. Henderson is “such a hard worker,” Smith said.
Food bank employees like operations manager Joey Romness will have to pick up the slack. Compared to some other Trump administration actions, the AmeriCorps news “hit home super hard,” because Romness works alongside Henderson every day trying to keep their neighbors fed, he said.
“It’s really gross the way they did it,” he said about the cuts. “It really stinks.”
