The Capital Area Food Bank’s recently announced Fresh Produce Campaign has just received a $1 million dollar gift from William E. Conway, Jr. and his wife, Joanne, through their charitable trust, The Bedford Falls Foundation. Mr. Conway is co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group. The donation will enable the food bank to continue distributing 15 million pounds of nutritious fruits and vegetables this year without passing on a shared maintenance fee to its 700 agency partners.
In addition to this recent gift, the Conways made a capstone grant of $5 million to the food bank’s capital campaign that concluded last November with $37 million raised over six years. In recognition of their overwhelming generosity, the new facility—currently under construction—will be named The Bedford Falls Foundation Food Bank Distribution Center. It is scheduled to open in June of 2012.
Despite reaching our $1 million campaign goal in less than two month, we have decided to extend our Fresh Produce Campaign in order to meet the increased demand for wholesome food—now and in the future.
Here is the disturbing reality. We are facing a hunger crisis in the Washington metro area and across the nation. Hunger in our region has increased by more than 25 percent since 2006 and affects 640,000 individuals, including one out of every two children in the nation’s capital. This threatening economy is impacting not only the poor, but the middle class, as well.
Throughout our nation, people are losing homes, holding two and three jobs to make ends meet, and many are unable to find work. In the past ten years, 50,000 manufacturing plants have closed and 8 million jobs have disappeared. In addition, Congress is proposing $800 million in cuts to nutrition and other programs that, over the years, have created a vibrant economy and a strong, robust and healthy nation.
The Capital Area Food Bank remains committed to providing increased access to quality fresh fruits and vegetables through our partner agencies and through direct service programs, such as Mobile Pantry, Kids Cafe® and Senior Brown Bag. Through our Nutrition Education Department, we encourage healthy eating habits that ultimately result in positive health outcomes. Those struggling with poverty must have stable, healthy food sources and the food bank helps relieve the stress of inadequate and unreliable diet.
We are looking to you, our community, to ensure that our incredibly important fresh produce program will continue as it has in the past. Your trust and support for our Fresh Produce Campaign will lift a burden and will ensure that we and our agencies can continue to help feed the 480,000 people that we serve annually though our network of programs.
Please make your donations on-line and designate that you want your contribution to support our Fresh Produce Campaign. I thank you profoundly for your support.