This is a free one-hour event showcasing how we “Nourish our Community,” in addition to our plans to increase the quality and the amount of food we distribute this year. You will also hear from clients and agencies that benefit from the food bank’s services.

Yes, this is a fundraiser, too. You will be asked to consider making a contribution. But there is no minimum or maximum gift request. It is the job of the Food Bank to inspire you to want to give or get involved in other ways. As much as anything, we would like you to come and find out about the great programs offered.

We would be delighted if you could join us. We also welcome family, friends and colleagues who are interested in learning more about our mission.

Please RSVP with Mary Dancy at dancym@capitalareafoodbank.org or (202) 526-5344 ext. 314

We hope to see you there!

My team was swamped but I wanted to ensure that the group had a great experience at our facility.  The Young African Leaders were hand-picked by the U.S. Department of State to come to the U.S. and learn about how non-profit organizations operate in an effort to better the communities they live in. The group was comprised of government officials, nutrition experts, media professionals and future food bankers.  This was a group of great leaders!

So I made a few calls, sent e-mails, researched the group and began the process of setting up a program for them to learn about the CAFB. 

The group wanted to learn how we serve the community and how our programs help those without access to healthy and nutritious foods.  On their visit, the leaders learned all about our Food For Kids Program, Harvest for Health, Agency Relations, Nutrition Education and our Public Policy & Community Outreach Program.

The leaders were amazed at our various nutrition education programs and were surprised to learn about the number of Americans struggling with hunger, high obesity rates and the lack of access to grocery stores throughout the country; and particularly in the National Capital Region.   

The Young African Leaders met with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, so I was honored when we were  put on the same agenda as our great leaders.  The greatest honor, however, was knowing that the food bank that I proudly work for is not only a leader in the community but a leader around the world.

One of the participants, Claudia (pictured above) from Congo B, recently sent me an e-mail thanking me and the CAFB for all of the information we shared. In her email she stated,  “…I was amazed by the initiatives at the Capital Area Food Bank. I will definitely be writing you more to seek your advice and assistance. I think you are actually doing a great job and I wonder if we would be able to make such a success here in Congo B. Yep, I came back yesterday with a mind full with new ideas.”

Claudia’s words confirm that the Capital Area Food Bank is on the right track in the community.  I encourage everyone that lacks food to contact us at 202-526-5344.  We are ready, willing and able to help.  Most importantly we enjoy what we do.

We are gearing up for our Skip Lunch Feed a Bunch campaign coming up on September 22nd.  We don’t want you to actually skip lunch but we want you to donate what you would normally spend on that salad, sandwich or coffee to the food bank.  With just five dollars the food bank can provide 15 meals. 

 Companies can even form teams and sign up to participate!  In this friendly competition, teams that raise the most money will receive some cool incentives. 

Feeding America, the Capital Area Food Bank’s umbrella organization, declared September National Hunger Action Month so we will accept donations throughout the month. 

Just as easily as you fork over money for lunch, reach into your pockets on September 22nd and give a little to help our neighbors in need.  It doesn’t take a lot!

By: Bella Herold

At 6:30am on Tuesday June 1^st, I sat in a van with Andrea Northup, Coordinator of the D.C. Farm to School Network, and her colleague Scott Lewis, Director of Food Services for a school food service provider, mesmerized as the D.C. highway slowly transitioned into a beautiful countryside: rolling hills and lots and lots of green.  Within two hours, we saw plots of farmland, barns, cows, horses and rows of crops fill the landscape.  We passed a horse-drawn carriage and Mennonite women in long dresses and bonnets going about their day.

By the time we arrived at the produce auction, the open-air marketplace was already filled with yards of fresh fruit and vegetables, hanging plants, carts of melons, lines of herbs and various plant varieties.  Farmers unloaded and stood by the fruits of their labor, jubilant, smiling and eager to engage in conversation about their crops.  Our mission was to purchase about 200 heads of lettuce for the D.C. Farm to School Network’s upcoming Strawberries and Salad Greens event.  The greens would be served as part of school lunches in cafeterias across the District.

The auctioneer spoke into his microphone, quickly describing each item for sale, how many boxes of it you could buy and starting bids.  Individuals signaled if they were interested in making a purchase, and, just as quickly as each sale began, it ended and the auctioneer moved onto the next item.  A crowd of people gathered around the products and the auctioneer and we followed him from product to product.  Andrea purchased Romaine, curly leaf, and red leaf lettuce, a few boxes of yellow squash, and several green cucumbers for a few schools.  After some fresh pie and ice cream from the small food stand, we left and loaded up with boxes upon boxes of fresh produce in tow.

The next day was the Strawberry and Salad Greens Event.  I volunteered at the E.W. Stokes Public Charter School, one of the schools that received lettuce from the Auction.  I worked with two other volunteers to set up a table in the cafeteria before the first students arrived for lunch.  We displayed a blossoming strawberry plant, a photograph of a strawberry farm and a lettuce farm, lettuce seeds, a small lettuce plant, a large head of lettuce, gardening tools, and a map of the local farms where the strawberries and lettuce from the kids’ lunch had traveled from with respect to the District.  The students were served lettuce we had just bought from the auction and strawberries from a West Virginia farmer.

After eating their meals, students and teachers approached us and were pleasantly surprised by the small green strawberries growing on the strawberry plant.  Some kids told us that their families had just started vegetable gardens at home and others stared in awe at the baby lettuce plant and tiny lettuce seeds.  Enticed by their friends’ excitement and the promise of Strawberry and Salad Greens event stickers, more students approached us as we inquired how their salads tasted and explained where the food came from. Kindergarteners came to play with the gardening gloves and watering can, but stayed to examine lettuce seeds and the petals on the strawberry plant.  One student ate her strawberries while peering at the strawberry plant in front of her.  The students tasted the freshness and crispness that resulted from the hard work, effort and motivation the farmers put into their crops.

I will continue to volunteer with the D.C. Farm to School Network regularly in the upcoming months, and look forward to making events like this one successful.  One thing I learned from the whole experience–hard work, effort and motivation tastes pretty good.

Local lettuce and berries for school lunch being prepared at CentroNIA

If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3^rd 2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays!  Over 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches.  This was part of an event called Strawberries & Salad Greens, organized by the D.C. Farm to School Network and in partnership with participating schools and food service providers.  For a medley of pictures from the event in DCist, click here.

Breakfast on the line at Thurgood Marshall Academy – blueberry muffin and local strawberries!

About 40,000 students in all 8 wards of the District gobbled up juicy, red berries and bright green lettuce in their lunches.  Approximately 7,300 pounds of local strawberries and 2,400 pounds of greens were purchased and served for the event, contributing about $20,000 to our local food economy.  The produce was grown on farms in Virgina, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania (visit dcfarmtoschool.org/strawberries for more information about the local growers).

Westmoreland Berry Farm, which supplied berries for DCPS meals on June 3^rd

In addition to helping schools find sources of fresh, local produce, the D.C. Farm to School Network coordinated “Where Food Comes From” tables in 16 school cafeterias.  At these tables, volunteers and parents displayed plants, posters, pictures, and gardening tools.  As students enjoyed their meals, they were able to see, touch, and smell where their food came from!

Carl Rollins with Common Good City Farm shows a strawberry plant to a group of pre-K students at Simon Elementary School

In twelve schools, local chefs performed interactive cooking demonstrations using local strawberries and salad greens.  Kids were able to help professionals prepare recipes, taste samples, discuss the importance of eating fresh, local, healthy foods, and bring home recipes to try with their families.

Chef Oliver Friendly of Eat and Smile Foods makes home-made granola and local strawberry parfaits at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School

The D.C. Farm to School Network is a program of the Capital Area Food Bank that works to get more healthy, local foods into Washington, DC school meals.  Learn more at www.dcfarmtoschool.org.

Kacie Warner from the Washington Youth Garden prepares a strawberry arugula salad with students at Center City Public Charter School

My Pyramid Salsa is a basic mixture 2, 24 ounce jars of salsa, 1 can of corn (drained and rinsed), 1 can of diced peaches (drained and rinsed), 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed), and 1 ½ cups of cheese. Eaten with whole grain crackers, the recipe covers FOUR food groups from My Pyramid including grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and beans.

This “recipe” is really not set in stone, rather, it is a Cooking By Looking recipe, which means, add what you like, and if it looks right to you, then it will taste good. We also encourage adding fresh seasonal ingredients such as cilantro, corn, or fruit when available.

My Pyramid Salsa has been offered in a variety of settings to many different audiences: board members, Brown Bag site leaders, Kids Cafe site leaders, ServSafe participants, and kids in our Kids Cook classes, to name a few. Across the board, the response to My Pyramid Salsa has been quite consistent: initial apprehension at first (the peaches are the source of apprehension), followed by two enthusiastic thumbs up after the tasting!

So how did the recipe go over at Whole Foods 5% Day? First, we had to replace the canned peaches with crushed pineapple, an ingredient readily available at Whole Foods stores. Nutrition Ed’s cooking demo volunteer helped assemble samples and the vote was unanimous: shoppers who sampled the recipe LOVED it!

Nutrition Education was thrilled to serve My Pyramid Salsa at Whole Foods 5% Day. This recipe represents nutrition education at CAFB: using basic ingredients in healthy and economical ways, adding fresh flare when and if you can, and eating a variety of foods from the Food Pyramid.

This was just one of the questions that caused me and the other participants at the annual Metropolitan Area Hunger Conference to examine how the people we serve operate.  The event was hosted by the Capital Area Food Bank on April 30 at Allen Chapel AME Church in DC.

The conference featured guest speaker Gary Eagleton from Aha! Process, Inc. presenting the Bridges Out of Poverty program.  Mr. Eagleton focused on how individuals are influenced by their socioeconomic class, the hidden rules that we all follow, and how to interact with the people in the lowest class to better serve their needs and empower them to break out of the cycle of poverty.

A participant begins an exercise in understanding the hidden rules of class.

While I am not a fan of labeling/stereotyping people or putting them into a rigid box, I learned at the conference that there are characteristics of people living in each socioeconomic class.  By understanding these characteristics, I’m better able to appreciate the outlooks of people in poverty, which helps me to address their needs in a more sensitive, compassionate way.

The Metropolitan Area Hunger Conference is one of two day-long training sessions the Agency Relations Department hosts each year.  Next up is the Northern Virginia Hunger Summit scheduled for Friday, September 24, 2010.  At this event, Bridges Out of Poverty will be back with the second day of training.  That program will outline strategies for serving people in poverty, giving agencies, volunteers and food bank staff like me concrete steps to be better service providers and more enlightened community members.

Participants listen to Gary Eagleton present part one of "Bridges Out of Poverty."

If you were not at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in your denim on March 28th for the 7^th Annual Blue Jeans Ball – you missed a tasty event!  The ball was in a new location this year and I think it worked in our favor!  The guests seemed to enjoy the savory dishes, stand out cake designs and creatively packaged auction items.  The theme that carried through the evening was our 30^th Anniversary.  This was definitely a special night for the food bank! 

Savory smells filled the room from top restaurants like Central Michel Richard, PS 7s, Eatonville and Ris.  The favorites of the night were definitely the lamb chops from Goodstone Inn, burgers from the Marriott Wardman Park and cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake.  A long time supporter and donor of the food bank, The Best Cookie also had great time as guests flocked to her table to sample her delicious cookies!  We had a little something for everyone.  The talk of the night was also the “Parade of Cakes” challenge, which was a museum like display of unique dessert designs from chefs like Michel Richard, Josh Short from Buzz Bakery and Heather Mackey from the Marriott.  All the cakes were great, but there could only be one winner.   Barton Farnsworth from Cake FX, who created a “Most Wanted” cake design which was inspired by the food bank’s Most Wanted Items list, took home the honors.

Other highlights of the evening were the “30 baskets for 30 years” displayed during the Silent Auction, which were created in honor of our 30^th Anniversary.  BJ Jennings, professional auctioneer, also brought a lively touch to the event exciting guests to bid, bid and bid some more!  We raised over $50,000 on the Silent and Live auction!

This year’s Blue Jeans Ball was definitely our most successful event – breaking records with an income of $217,000.  Guests came in their favorite jeans, sampled delicious foods while supporting the Capital Area Food Bank.  It was a memorable night for sure!

Throughout the morning we discussed snack and supper options, new reporting forms, upcoming training opportunities and new resources that are available to our site leaders and children. Many great suggestions were shared and we look forward to implementing some new ideas. It is always so energizing to get all of our site leaders in one place to talk, share food, and focus on the children we’re serving. We already look forward to our next round of forums this fall!

We want to send a special thanks to Covenant Baptist Church for allowing us to use their space again this spring.

Feel free to provide your own insights via twitter, but be sure to add #bluejeansball to your tweet so we can find it. You can also get involved by sharing some twitter love with us by retweeting our videos and letting us know which ones you like the best and why. If  we don’t see you at the Blue Jeans Ball, we’ll be looking out for you on twitter!