The week of Thanksgiving involves a flurry of activity for most Americans as they shop, cook, and decorate for the big holiday. Family and friends come together to share a meal and connect as the busy holiday season begins.

In food insecure households, this is not what is experienced in the home without food assistance programs. Thanks to the Capital Area Food Bank’s Kids Cafe® program, children who otherwise would not celebrate with an abundance of food were able to experience a Thanksgiving meal.

As an Ambassador Volunteer for the CAFB, I had the privilege to celebrate community Thanksgiving meals at three CAFB-sponsored after-school sites. Walking into the various sites were the smells of Thanksgiving as food was being prepared. While waiting for their special meal, children laughed and played. Blessings were given, some children read poetry and others sang a chorus before the meal arrived. Overall, there was a sense of community and family that all should experience at Thanksgiving, which would not have been possible without the assistance of Kids Cafe.

Mrs. Hannah Hawkins, Founder and Director of the Kids Cafe site Children of Mine Youth Center, stated without Kids Cafe donations her budget prevents her from providing fresh fruit and vegetables. On my visit, I saw children thrilled to have fresh red grapes following their Thanksgiving meal.

In addition to catering over 50 after-school locations with Thanksgiving meals, Kids Cafe also distributed turkeys and side fixings to the sites to give to families in need. One man I met arrived at a center to pick up his family’s meal box was immensely grateful to have everything he needed provided as a result of the kindness of others.

As I watched children in a large community center giddy with excitement waiting for their table to be called for dinner, it was heartwarming to know this joy was brought to the children and their families by so many who donate, volunteer and work to make a difference at CAFB. It was a blessed Thanksgiving for many as a result.

The Kids Cafe program continues its holiday distributions in December by providing meals for families and fresh fruit for children to take home for the winter break from school. We encourage anyone wanting to get involved to volunteer. To learn more about our fresh produce campaign, click here.

Photo Courtesy of Paul Kim

 Two judges from Food Network’s “Chopped” recently visited the P Street Whole Foods Market to  purchase food for the Capital Area Food Bank.  Chefs Marc Murphy and Amanda Freitag, in partnership with Share Our Strength and Whole Foods, shopped and collected food to help raise awareness of childhood hunger in America. 

My colleague, Brian Banks, and I even chipped in and helped load the Food Network truck with the donated products.  Through the initiative, the CAFB received the following items:

- 1,800 bags of rice
- 2,900 cans of tuna
- 8,600 cans of vegetables
- 11,500 cans of beans
- 1,400 jars of peanut butter
- 15,600 diapers
- 2,200 cans of soup

As part of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, the Food Network is hosting food drives in Washington, D.C., areas of Baltimore and Philadelphia and will deliver 135,000 meals to those areas.  Throughout the holiday season, Food Network trucks will stop at local Whole Foods Markets to collect customer donations.

It is because of community partners like Whole Foods, Food Network and Share Our Strength, that the Capital Area Food Bank is able to feed the thousands of families, children and seniors struggling to get enough food to eat. 

Greater Access to Produce

The community center at Southern Ridge Apartments, a Community and Preservation Development Corporation property in Ward 8 is a Kids Cafe site and was chosen to be part of this pilot initiative. Through the Kids Cafe program, Southern Ridge receives snacks and suppers to serve to kids ages 5-18 who attend the center every day after school.  In an effort to combine education and greater access to nutritious fresh produce, we held two cooking demonstrations for residents of Southern Ridge. Through an established relationship with the Ward 8 Farmers Market and this grant, we were able to offer any resident who attended the demonstrations $20 to purchase fresh produce items at the market held at THEARC.

Cooking Demonstrations

Food For Kids Manager Grace Lichaa led both cooking demonstrations.  She chose fresh produce items that would be accessible at the farmers market and used them to make great fall foods. In September, Grace made sweet potato chips in the toaster oven and collard greens cooked with onions, sliced crisp apples and vegetable broth. The collard greens brought on a great discussion of the many ways residents cook their own collard greens!

At the next cooking demonstration in October, which had another great turn-out of new residents and return guests, Grace made sweet potato black bean soup… in the microwave, with the option of topping off the soup with fresh cilantro purchased at the market.  This was a big hit!  She also made massaged kale salad with a fresh lemon and garlic dressing.

These cooking demonstrations have been a great success. Twenty dollars for produce and the sharing of food and ideas is a huge incentive to bring people to the community center, but the cooking demonstrations have proven to be more than this. Residents come together and make connections with each other, share events, such as a turkey give-away in time for Thanksgiving, at a local church, Ms. Cora Clark-Miles, the Resident Services Manager is able to spread the word about the many free trainings and events she is hosting for the residents, and most of all, a sense of community is instilled in those in attendance.

Thanks to our friends at Common Good City Farm, we were introduced to Mindy Mitchell, who not only made the beautiful signage around our small garden but also worked with our staff to create the mural illustration.

Then a year went by, then another and maybe another…I can’t even remember – but no group, no individual, nobody was interested in making a mural on the side of a shed.  And so the beautiful illustration just sat in a file.

But then, through a friend of a friend (you know how that works) a connection was made and our team was put in contact with Katherine Elkins, the Visual Arts Teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. After looking for years for a community group, the perfect person just fell into our lap!  The partnership couldn’t have been more perfect.   The high school would benefit from an exciting off-site art project while learning about the work that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Capital Area Food Bank do at Clagett Farm.  And the FYI program benefited exponentially by having a beautiful mural painted by volunteers.

Ms. Elkins decided to project the image onto the shed for students to trace, so with numerous orange extension cords snaking their way around basil and parsley plants we found a power source.  We used a combination of rain barrels and wooden boards to balance the projector and laptop.  Of course the “best place” for this balancing act ended up being directly in the middle of our Pizza Garden. 

But alas, no luck, it was too bright a day for the projection to actually be visible. And that is where the really impressive work began.  Ms. Elkins immediately set to work organizing a few students who would work with her to make the freehand sketch, while I took the other students on a tour of the farm.

By the time we returned from the tour the image outline was up. The students were phenomenal workers!  While one team worked on the mural others took turns eating their lunch, catching up on other class assignments and exploring the farm.  Within a few hours the painting was nearly complete.

 A few weeks later a handful of students and Ms. Elkins came back to the farm to add a few finishing touches and voila!  The project that took years to get off the ground was done!

Not enough can be said about Ms. Elkins’ leadership.  Without her extra effort in so many areas none of this would have been possible.  The students were thoroughly inspiring – they are talented artists, joyful individuals and cooperative teammates.  My day with them was thoroughly a delight.

 Ms. Elkins and her class made the garden space at Clagett Farm a warm and inviting space for the nearly 200 children that used that garden this summer through the FYI program. 

School is back in session.  Pop quiz!  How many children live in food insecure homes in the United States?   What percentage of children live in food insecure households in Washington, D.C.?  According to the USDA statistics, about 16 million children live in food insecure households.  This means that they don’t know where their next meal will come from.  Here in D.C., 32.3 percent of children live in food insecure households.  

Tests, projects and homework make school tough enough but adding the element of hunger makes these essential pieces of school almost impossible.  It is tough to concentrate on an empty stomach.  At the Capital Area Food Bank, we are striving to ensure that kids all across the region ace their tests!  As school gets back into full swing, we are working throughout the region to reach school-aged children and their families.

In the Food For Kids Department  we are spending our evenings and weekends at Back-to-School programs in order to talk to children and their families about the afterschool and weekend meals we are providing through our Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag programs.  In addition to talking about our programs, we are disseminating health information, books and school supplies.  Spending time with us is the Public Policy and Community Outreach department spreading the word about SNAP benefits.  Partner Relations has given us information to share about our Hunger Life Line-a tool connecting community members to food in their area.

The next time you see a food bank staff person in your neighborhood or school, give them a high five for their work on helping eliminate hunger in our area.  They deserve some extra credit!

In the shadow of the nation’s capital, hunger can be found in schools, on playgrounds, in assisted living facilities, and more recently in manicured homes of middle-class families.  Here in the Washington metro area, hunger is not distended bellies or sunken eyes – but children who look forward to school, not to learn, but to eat school meals; seniors who have to choose between eating or buying medicine; and parents who work multiple jobs but still struggle to feed their families. 

CBS Evening News recently reported this epidemic in a segment featuring The Capital Area Food Bank and partner agency Children on Mine, Inc.

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.  

Food is the most basic human right and we must work together to ensure that all have access to quality, nutritious meals – three times a day.  Help the food bank nourish those in need.  To make a donation, please click here.  Or to volunteer, please click here.

In the Food For Kids Department, our Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag sites often invite us to attend their events and to distribute information about the services we provide across the food bank.  We distribute  fliers and handouts on Hunger Lifeline, SNAP benefits, Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag, tasty recipes, tour cards, and more.  We provide give-aways and food samples that promote healthy eating and key nutrition messages.

Meleah Boyle, MD Kids Cafe/Weekend Bag Coordinator at the recent Rock Creek Terrace Community Day

Rock Creek Terrace Apartments (part of Edgewood Management Corporation) in Rockville, MD recently held a community day event for their apartment complex and invited us to set up a booth.  Their community center participates in both Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag, serving up to 60 children a day.  We had a wonderful time talking with people – chatting about the programs that their community center has for their children, answering questions about other services, and giving out samples of a delicious black bean salsa recipe that can be made with common Weekend Bag items.

At community events, we have the unique opportunity to talk with people with every type of interest in the food bank – those needing our services, interested in volunteering, wanting to donate, or just wanting to find out who we are.  Community events bring us together with different groups, inspire interest in our mission, and keep us connected with those in need.

The Capital Area Food Bank, along with many other organizations, is spreading the word about free summer meals.  Last Friday, the food bank partnered with Latin America Youth Center to canvass neighborhoods in Capitol Heights and Seat Pleasant, Maryland.  Part of the group also handed out resources at a Mobile Food Pantry distribution.  The teens from LAYC distributed over 1,500 door hangers and fliers, sharing information about how to find summer meals as well as information about SNAP benefits.

Help us make sure that this summer is fun for everyone.  Join us in getting the word out about where kids can eat for free this summer!  Distribute fliers in your community to anyone who has children or works with children who may be at risk of hunger.  Contact Kendra Rowe Salas at rowesalask@capitalareafoodbank.org for additional outreach materials that you can use this summer.  With 200,000 children and teens at risk of hunger in the D.C. metro area, this information is essential!

For the past three years, the Washington Nationals have partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank to organize food drives during the summer months when our food  donations are typically slow.  But not only do they assist in donating food, the Nats team players put the food where their mouth is and donate their time by volunteering in the warehouse!

Recently, Ryan Mattheus, pitcher for the Nationals, visited the food bank along with Harris Teeter team members – Ronnie Cash, Bob Smith, Duanne Inskeep, Renne Kifus, Chris Pyne, and CAFB Board Member Dan Marett – to help pack bags for our Weekend Bag Program. 

We even had a surprise visit from Harry the Happy Dragon, Harris Teeter’s mascot!

Ryan and the Harris Teeter team helped to pack 500 Weekend Bags that were distributed to Kids Cafe sites in the DC Metro area.  The Weekend Bag program is a national program of Feeding America ,where we work with partner sites to distribute bags of food to youth for the weekend.  We send 5-7 pounds of food including breakfast, lunch/supper and snack items, as well as a mix of the food groups.  The bags have kid-friendly items and items that a parent or caretaker is able to prepare.

We thank The Washington Nationals, Ryan Mattheaus and Harris Teeter for thier commitment to serving the individuals in our community and look forward to hosting them again next year!

I recently had the opportunity and honor to represent the Capital Area Food Bank at the second White House Community Leaders Briefing Series. This event is hosted by The White House Office of Public Engagement, and is an opportunity for the White House to share information with community leaders from across the country on the Small Business Administration, Energy and the Environment, Affordable Care Act, the Department of Education, the Economy, and more.

This is also an important time for community leaders to share ideas with the White House on how to improve existing federal programs, as well as share new and fresh ideas that can improve our community and country. This was not my first time attending an event at the White House, however, the series was rewarding both personally and professionally. 

After listening to the White House Staffers and networking with Carolyn, a Native American advocate from Seattle; Mary, a Civil Rights Attorney from New Orleans; and Adowa Ansah, from Connecticut, who founded Women of Praize - an organization that focuses on motivating women in Politics – I immediately knew I am not alone in my quest to educate and to give back to my neighbors, my community, my family and friends, and to any individual or family in need.

It was refreshing to step away from my caring colleagues at the CAFB and spend time with people from all over the country that are working just as hard to help people in their own communities.  I expressed the need to protect safety-net programs not only because people need the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, WIC, TEFAP, TANF and CACFP, but because these programs assist in boosting the economy and lowering the overall deficit.

Congress is currently debating the FY12 Budget and many of our repesenatives in the House and Senate want to cut funding for safety net programs or get rid of them all together.  This would be a terrible move that is sure to push more people towards poverty and hunger. Furthermore, if programs are cut and more people need help, the assistance will not be there for those in need.

I believe the White House understands this, however, I encourage everyone to contact the White House at 1-888-245-0215 in support of safety net programs.  Also call your Senator at 1-888-907-1481 in support of safety net programs.  Tell the White House and Senate that you support responsible long-term deficit reduction through a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts that do not harm the poor and vulnerable.

As community leaders, it is our responsibility to spread the news on what is needed to help people and to take action.  You don’t have to spend the day at the White House to be a leader and to make change, just simply stay involved in your community.  If you are unsure on how to get involved please email me at banksb@capitalareafoodbank.org.