It is hard to believe that almost an entire year has gone by since I first arrived at the Capital Area Food Bank.  Since last September, I have had the incredible opportunity to work with so many incredible people, learn about this community, hunger and even about myself.  For lack of a better way of summing up my experience, let me just recount just a few of the things I’ve learned this year.

• I learned that when you can barely afford to put food on the table, “trying new things” is a luxury you often can’t afford.  One of the great elements of the six-week Operation Frontline cooking and nutrition class is simply allowing participants to cook and eat new, healthy foods, so they can be confident that buying these foods will be money well spent.

• I learned that kids will eat and love just about anything they’ve had a hand in cooking. I will never forget seeing one nine-year-old boy run up to his dad at the end of class and beg him to let him take home a bag of extra zucchini he helped cut.

• I learned that a lot of people desperately want to eat healthier and feed their families better, but grew up in households where nobody cooked and just lacked the basic cooking skills necessary to make healthy, homemade meals.  It is incredible how empowering it can be to learn basic skills like chopping and roasting.

• I learned that our city is full of people who have dedicated their lives to improving our community and serving their neighbors. One of the great joys of being an OFL coordinator is being able to work with site coordinators who have been in communities for decades and just to hear their stories.

• I learned that organizations like the Capital Area Food Bank are remarkable places filled with truly remarkable people.  For decades, this organization has managed to put out millions and millions of pounds of food each year to feed the hungry. The people I’ve had the chance to work with are inspiring in their dedication, but they are also some of the funniest, nicest people I’ve ever met.

• I learned that oftentimes the only thing preventing people from getting more involved in their communities is a lack of communication about opportunities.  I think one of the great things about OFL is that it not only brings chefs and nutritionists in to teach classes, it also brings them into communities where they establish relationships.  Nothing made me happier than seeing my volunteers continue to work with sites long after our class series were over.

• I learned that everyone has something to teach and that this is especially true in a cooking class.  Something about spending the last twenty minutes of each class in fellowship over a meal leads to some really wonderful conversations, and without the sixth-class potlucks I never would have learned just how delicious West African cuisine is!

This year has flown by and it’s sad to have to say good-bye to all the wonderful people at CAFB, the sites I’ve worked with and Share Our Strength.  One thing that’s for sure is that I will never forget the things I’ve learned this year. Whatever the future holds for me, I plan on staying involved in the struggle to end hunger for the rest of my life.

For the second year in a row, Federal Employees have come together to collect nonperishable food donations for individuals and families nationwide.  The Feds Feed Families Food Drive is a summer long initiative led by the Office of Personnel Management and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council. The Capital Area Food Bank is thrilled to receive the local donations, during a period when we traditionally experience a drop in donations.

To encourage participation, various agencies are holding fun and creative events throughout the summer.  On Wednesday morning, I was lucky enough to attend the Feds Get Fit While Feeding Families event, held in the basement of the Department of Interior.  Federal Employees were encouraged to bring food donations to earn admission to the event.  As part of the “Get Fit” event, they were invited to participate in hula hoop, golf, basketball and even Wii contests.  Later the group broke out into a low-impact cardio workout. What fun!

Over the course of the summer, we have seen this food drive morph into much more!  Several groups of federal employees have toured the food bank; others have spent their Saturdays sorting canned goods in our warehouse.  A few federal agencies have held their own cookouts, festivals and fairs to rally support for the food drive. There have been reports of fun competitions all throughout often with embarrassing consequences at stake.

Here at the Capital Area Food Bank, we are not only thankful for the food donations during the summer months, but we are pleased to see hunger awareness spread throughout our community.

The next Feds Feed Families collection date is scheduled for August 31st.  We can’t wait for the results!

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.

Food banks around the nation offer the BackPack Program (or the Weekend Bag Program at the CAFB), sending children home with a bag or backpack of food for weekend meals.  Currently, there is no Federal funding to offset the cost of providing weekend meals, but the Weekends Without Hunger Act offers much-needed funding to support these programs.

From Feeding America
Weekends Without Hunger

Rep. Dina Titus (NV-3) and Senator Arlen Specter (PA) recently introduced the “Weekends Without Hunger Act” (H.R. 5012/S. 3292). This legislation establishes a 5-year pilot program, beginning in FY 2011, that provides commodities to eligible institutions, such as schools and emergency food providers, to carry out projects that would provide nutritious food to at-risk school children on weekends and during extended school holidays during the school year. Eligible institutions must be located in low-income communities, meaning at least 50% of the children are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals. Each fiscal year a minimum of $10 million in new funding would be provided for the purchase of commodities. An interim and final evaluation would be completed in 2013 and 2015 respectively.  Click here for more information on the Weekend Without Hunger Act.

The risk of hunger during out of school times was recently reported on CNN, featuring our partner organization Frederick Douglass Community Center, which has both a Kids Cafe and Weekend Bag program in operation year-round.

For more information about the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill, including the Weekends Without Hunger Act, visit the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

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!

So Nutrition Education and Agency Relations decided to pare down the intensive course into a 2 hour basic workshop geared towards food pantries, soup kitchens, Kids Cafe sites and others served by the food bank.

So how do you take 16 hours and smush it into 2 hours?  It starts with the KEYS to food safety (developed by the Nutrition Education Department) – Keep it Clean, Cook Food Fully and Store Food Safely. Then we take those KEYS, and turn them into skills.

The skill building part of the workshop is where participants learn how to calibrate a thermometer, make bleach water, practice proper hand washing techniques and match foods with the correct cooking temperatures.  Then participants map out where food travels through their own organization to identify where KEYS to food safety can be applied in their own daily operations; and which staff or volunteers would need to be trained in a specific skill area.

At the end of the workshop, participants came up to me to say how much they enjoyed learning in a fun and interactive way, which is the rewarding part!

As with all new trainings we have created, there continues to be tweaking.  But the goal remains the same – provide knowledge and skills to empower our partners to serve, store, and cook food safely!

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.

Donate it to us!

At the Capital Area Food Bank we can take donations of fresh produce anytime between 8:30am-4:30pm Monday through Friday. Drive up, dash in, drop off, fill out a 2 minute donation form and you are off! There is no schedule or advanced notice required. It’s that easy!

Looking for something more sustained? We have a partnership program called Grow A Row that pairs your beautiful garden with a neighborhood non-profit feeding program. You donate directly to them through the end of the growing season.

Visit our Grow A Row webpage or email us for more information about donating fresh produce.

Happy Growing!

In response to this need, Four Seasons Produce, one of the largest independent produce wholesalers in the country, teamed up with Feeding America and the Capital Area Food Bank. In order to take action this summer, the Four Seasons family of companies pledged to support the communities which they service in the Mid Atlantic Region. From June 26^th through July 4^th, Four Seasons Produce donated $0.10 from every case of produce sold and delivered to local food banks through Feeding America. In addition to donating a portion of sales, Four Seasons Produce also encouraged suppliers and partners to make a difference as well.

This week-long drive inspired 13 customers, suppliers and partners to contribute. Collectively, they raised over $33,000! The donations will be split among four local food banks- Philabundance, Central PA Food Bank, Greater Berks Food Bank and Capital Area Food Bank, all members of the Feeding America network.

We are so thankful for this important and encouraging donation. A huge thank you to the following groups that came together to make such an incredible donation: Four Seasons Produce, Graul’s Market, Karns Foods, Cornucopia Natural Foods, RMG, Fresh Express, Earthbound Farms/Advantage Sales & Mktg, Dole Fresh Cut Vegetables, Mother Earth, McKonly & Asbury, Lift Inc., First National Bank, AFS and Office Service Company.

This fundraiser is a great example of what can be achieved when we work together. We look forward to next year’s drive!