1. Ensure that people are educated about the program,
2. Help determine eligibility, and
3. Assist with the application process

FBCOG, fondly known as “The Collaborative,” is a proud Capital Area Food Bank feeding partner that works to help those in need. FBCOG provides ample resources to families and children who are in crisis. Their overall goal is:

“To provide a holistic approach to education through a community partner food pantry and resource intake center with wrap-around services to alleviate hunger, promote health and well-being of students, families and individuals.”

FBCOG strives to reach this goal by coordinating monthly food drives and outreach events. The pantry has been active since February 2011 and has grown serve as a regular source of needed food for many of the area’s families. Pastor Claudia Walters, founder of the collaborative, and her team work extremely hard to make it possible for people throughout the Washington metro area to have steady access to food necessities.

Advocacy In-take Center Sites

The following sites have been established to further assist families in need. Community partners are present to provide resource information to various local programs. Food items, toiletries and other items are also distributed.

See below for hours of operation. Services are unavailable every 4th Friday of the month at CES and every 4th week of the month for CCMS.

Charles Carroll Middle School (CCMS)
Wednesday/Thursday from 12 noon-4 pm
6130 Lamont Drive
New Carrollton, MD 20784

Carrollton Elementary School (CES)
Tuesday/Friday from 10 am-2 pm
8300 Quintana Street
New Carrollton, MD 20784

The post Partner Highlight: The Advocacy In-take Center appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

In the spirit of building a healthier body, The Body You Want Fitness Solutions (TBYW) stepped up in a big way for the entire month of April, and as with a good workout – the results are impressive!

The facility added a metabolic acceleration class to its Sunday schedule and instead of charging for the class, participants simply donated four pounds of lean protein for the Capital Area Food Bank.

“We collected a little over 300 lbs. of non-perishable protein, and also have a little over $300 in cash,” says Co-founder Josef Brandenburg of his generous students.

“The Protein Food Drive is an opportunity to do something good for others and to do something good for yourself,” says Brandenburg.

“ If you’re a family who lives on food stamps it’s really hard to afford to get enough protein in your diet or your child’s diet, so donating nonperishable protein to the CAFB is really important to make sure that low income families don’t just get quantity of food, but also quality.”

“We had 15 to 20 people per class — I’m really happy with that,” Brandenburg says of the community members who took advantage of the chance to work on physical fitness for free, while providing support for the Capital Area Food Bank.

With the nonperishable proteins: natural peanut butter, canned chicken, tuna or salmon that the gym participants dropped off, we have The Body You Want to thank!

The post The Body You Want – For Protein We Want! appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

Why would a food bank be concerned about Saturday mail service? Because Stamp Out Hunger takes place on Saturday!

Stamp Out Hunger is one of our largest single day food drives, delivering thousands of pounds of much-needed food to fill our shelves. Without Saturday mail service, we were concerned that this Saturday would mark our last Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

In celebration, we are asking you to help make the 21st Annual Stamp Our Hunger a huge success! This Saturday, May 11th, Letter Carriers across the country will generously donate their time to pick up donated food from individuals and businesses.

With three easy steps, you can help to feed those who suffer from hunger in the Washington, DC metro area:

1. Collect nonperishable food donations in a bag. Remember, every bit counts! We are currently in need of:
   • Peanut butter
   • Canned meat, fish, and beans
   • Canned fruit (in their own juices, preferably)
   • Cereal (hot and cold)
2. Leave your bag of donations by your mailbox on Saturday, May 11th before 9am. Your local letter carrier will pick up the donations and deliver directly to the Capital Area Food Bank.
3. Spread the word: Remind everyone you know to leave a bag of nonperishable food by their mailboxes. You can use twitter and Facebook as a reminder, click here for more information.

Don’t forget to leave your donation by your mailbox on Saturday. And remember to thank your letter carrier!

The post Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

FOSE, the largest, most comprehensive event serving the technology community, is partnering with the Capital Area Food Bank to help make a difference in the lives of those suffering from hunger.

FOSE’s annual conference is held concurrently with GovSec, the Government Security Conference and Expo, and runs from May 13-16. It is not too late to register: www.fose.com.

Conference attendees will bring non-perishable food to the Washington Convention Center and all donations will be donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.

Free for government employees

Sequestration and the resulting across-the-board budget cuts put a great deal of stress on agency training opportunities, and so FOSE made the popular conference free to all government employees.

Hopes are high for generous donations: last year, there were 15,000 attendees, according to Sarah Shepard-Kneip of Tuvel Communications.

“There are members of the entire tech community attending, not just the government sector, but dozens of others branches of tech specialists,” she says, setting the goal at 500 pounds of food collected – that’s almost 400 meals for those in the Washington metro area.

FOSE is the nation’s premier event for government technology professionals, providing attendees with real-world tools, tactics and strategy insights from industry leaders. It is an all-encompassing event delivering knowledge from industry experts, technology insights, policy updates, certification courses and tactical demos; all designed to optimize an organization’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Now that many organizations have to do “more with less” in today’s economy, attending the 2013 FOSE Conference is more critical than ever. And the partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank shows the tech community’s dedication to helping those in need during those same tough times.

The post Tech Community Shares With its Heart appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

Volunteer Receptionist

Ongoing
The Volunteer Department is seeking volunteers to help create a positive and welcoming environment for volunteers by serving as Volunteer Receptionists on select weekend and evening shifts. These volunteers will be essential in improving the volunteer experience by providing support to volunteers entering the lounge and food donation areas. Volunteer Receptionists will also ensure that volunteers are properly oriented and engaged during these shifts. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please click here to learn more and sign-up.

Cooking Matters Volunteers

Ongoing
Cooking Matters is a national 6-week, hands-on nutrition and cooking educational series developed by Share Our Strength. It is offered through the Capital Area Food Bank to limited resource participants around the Washington metro area. As a Cooking Matters Volunteer, you will have the opportunity to work with a passionate team of volunteers to engage and encourage participants to choose healthier foods for a healthier lifestyle. To learn more about these Cooking Matters positions or to sign-up, please visit the Nutrition Instructor, Culinary Instructor, and Class Assistant volunteer pages.

Client Survey Interviewer – Hunger Study

Spring and Summer
Volunteers are needed for the Hunger in America 2014 study working as Client Survey Interviewers. The 2014 Hunger Study is a comprehensive profile of the incidence and nature of hunger and food insecurity in the United States. The Hunger Study provides extensive demographic profiles of clients at charitable feeding agencies and comprehensive information on the nature and efficacy of local agencies in meeting the food security needs of clients. The study is the largest of its kind, and we can’t do it without you. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please click here to learn more and sign-up.

To view a full list of our Skilled Volunteering Program positions and needs, please click here.

As always, volunteers are needed every day of the week at various locations that aren’t listed on this blog post or on the Skilled Volunteering Program page. Please visit our calendar of ongoing volunteer opportunities and sign-up for a project that fits your interests and schedule.

The post Calling All Volunteers — May appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

Thank you and congratulations to all of our 2013 Volunteer Award winners!

• DC Branch Volunteer of the Year Award – Ryan Lore
  Ryan Lore has been involved with the Capital Area Food Bank’s D.C. location for over 15 years.

• NOVA Branch Volunteer of the Year Award – Lisa Heidemann
  As Cecelia Vergaretti, Senior Director of our NOVA branch, puts it, “Lisa stocks the shelves with love, like she is putting the food in her own kitchen pantry.”

• Corporate Volunteer Group of the Year Award – JBG Companies
  Over the past year, JBG Companies brought over 100 volunteers to the food bank, providing over 300 hours of community service.

• Civic Volunteer Group of the Year Award – Youth Service Opportunity Project (YSOP)
  In their entire tenure with the food bank, YSOP has graciously sent over 1,000 volunteers and have committed over 5,000 hours of service alongside the Food Donations and Distribution Operations teams.

• Food for Kids Department Volunteer Award – Porsche Huggins
  Porsche Huggins is an administrative volunteer for the Food For Kids team whose positive attitude brings light to the team every time she is in the office.

• Food Resources Department Volunteer Award – Laura Creswell
  Laura Creswell has provided administrative support in the Food Resources Department for the past several months, allowing them to spend more time in the community finding food donations for our partner agencies.

• Volunteer Department Award – Paula Porter
  Paula utilizes her customer service and problem solving skills while serving as our special projects volunteer. Her services are immensely appreciated in the Volunteer Programs Department and help to further the mission of the CAFB.

• NOVA Food Donations Department Volunteer Award – The Phillips School
  Students volunteer at the CAFB twice a week helping to sort and stock shelves on the shopping floor, while also learning new skills and moving towards self-sufficiency.

• Development Department Volunteer Award – Amy Reich
  Amy Reich is a Skilled Volunteer who assists with data entry, mailings, calls to donors and most importantly, to thank our donors.

• Healthy Eating Department Volunteer Award – Kate Sherwood
  Kate Sherwood is the culinary director and executive chef at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She has donated countless hours to developing and testing recipes for the Healthy Recipe Database. She has also taught many Recipe Testing Classes that are crucial to building the capacity of our partner agencies.

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers for your contributions. You are the backbone of this organization and we couldn’t do this work without you!

Visit the volunteer section of the food bank’s website to learn more about the exciting ways you can help feed our neighbors in need.

The post Volunteer Awards Reception appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

Well, that’s exactly what students at Simon Elementary School in Southeast Washington had been doing just before the school was crowned champion of the First in Math March Madness competition.

Simon Elementary is one of the many schools in which the Capital Area Food Bank sponsors a food pantry, and the excitement of both students and faculty after their championship was oozing like a jelly-filled donut after the first bite!

Following the lead of the NCAA College Hoops March Madness hysteria, the DC public schools created and hosted a district-wide First in Math March Madness competition of their own. The program is an online competition that offers wide-ranging math equations – from single-step addition to complex algebra – in an engaging format.

How they did it

The Simon Lions roared and showed DC they’re the king of this jungle. It was time to add a win to their school’s triumphs. What a Cinderella story; Simon had initially ranked a dismal 64th among all district schools.

“We just wanted to be respected,” expressed one student joyfully.

After hours and hours of time and energy spent answering challenging math equations online, the Lions muscled their way into the Final Four.

“This was the first time in a month the kids went out to recess,” boasted one teacher after the Final Four win.

Because of their access to snacks and groceries provided by the Capital Area Food Bank through the School Food Pantry program, teachers were given permission by parents to allow students to come to school early and stay late to work on math during the last several weeks of the elementary school version of March madness.

During the final seconds of the competition, it was anybody’s game. But, the Lions roared and with a final dunk, they won the competition and hoisted the trophy that is now displayed in the school entrance to inspire future generations.

As a Capital Area Food Bank staff member left the school that day, he was so proud to share their story with his colleagues and partner agencies.

He said, “Hopefully, everyone will all gain a valuable lesson from the Simon Lions: it is not where you start, but how you finish!”

Help the Capital Area Food Bank by donating today, to ensure that all students, like the Simon Lions, have a strong finish in life.

The post It’s Not Where You Start, but How You Finish appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

Although that is not our role, we do work hand-in-hand with those organizations working on the front line in the struggle against hunger.

We are a distribution center, with smaller organizations coming to shop for fresh produce and food to serve directly to their clients.

Food donated to the CAFB from companies and individuals goes through our partner agencies – community organizations such as food pantries, church groups, etc. – and directly to residents in need.

In addition to food distribution, we take pride in empowering our partners through our teaching kitchen, nutrition programs and a variety of other resources.

A good example is Top Shelf, our premier training series that teaches our partners important subjects such as how to:

• Manage nonprofit finances
• Develop programs
• Recruit volunteers
• Distribute healthy food

The Top Shelf series consists of seven workshops providing a solid foundation for emergency feeding programs that want to improve their operations. The next classes will take place May 24 and June 7.

This time around, the program came with even more rewards!

Through a donation from Rent-A-Center and an anonymous donor in Montgomery County, the 16 organizations that recently completed the training were eligible to receive a brand new freezer for food storage in their pantries.

This short video shows how the Capital Area Food Bank works with donors and partners to empower those feeding our neighbors in need.

The post Food Education Pays Off appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

We could not have done it without the support of our volunteers from St. Michael’s College Alumni, George Washington University’s TKE Fraternity, George Washington University Community Building Community Organization, students from Georgetown University, individual volunteers and CAFB Garden Leaders.

In less than eight hours, volunteers removed more than 5,000 square feet of sod and prepared more than 1,200 feet of lumber for wooden raised garden beds.

We are excited to continue developing the food bank garden space. Join us and volunteer at a future garden dig.

The post Volunteers Dig the Food Bank’s Urban Demonstration Garden appeared first on Capital Area Food Bank.

“We built this amazing structure for hunger relief largely without asking people who are hungry! We won’t be successful over the long haul without the voice of those people. We need to engage our clients, not just by giving them a box of food, but by empowering them, too,” says Lee, who is speaking at the April 26 Metropolitan Area Hunger Conference. “So the question is: how do we use these services we are offering people to empower them?”

The conference brings together those invested — either professionally or socially — in eradicating hunger.

Nancy E. Roman, the Capital Area Food Bank’s new President and CEO, will open the conference with welcoming remarks, “We understand that solving hunger is intimately related to so many important social developments. If you are hungry, you cannot learn. If you are hungry, your immune system does not develop fully. If you are hungry, you have trouble holding down a job.”

The keynote speaker, Enid Borden, is the Founder, President and CEO of the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger, formerly known as the Meals On Wheels Research Foundation.

Lee continues, “We have to remind people who have day-to-day interactions with the hungry that they have immense power. The person-to-person relationship is valuable, because it reminds those in need that society has not forgotten about them,” Lee stresses, noting that we have a special responsibility to children.

“At the conference, my goal is to remind people that child hunger is important. A child who is not eating is not learning, and is not healthy. Chronic health issues and underachievement in tomorrow’s generation are things we should all be concerned with. I will be sharing national opinions on that topic. There is a real disinvestment in our future going on here,” he notes, adding his aim is to present data in a clear and articulate way.

Another of the conference speakers, Darlene Jenkins, says she is eager to meet conference attendees who provide services, “because often, in a researcher role, I don’t hear enough from the trenches. I want to learn from others.”

Jenkins works with the homeless, and says those without shelter are inextricably linked to hunger. She adds her voice to the chorus saying we should do more listening.

“People who survive the street are very resilient. Instead of looking at their needs, let’s build on their assets – what is their story? Let’s bring them along as we try to eliminate both homelessness and hunger,” says the Director of Research for National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

Speakers at the conference, sponsored by the Capital Area Food Bank, are determined to take the conversation beyond where it is now.

Pierre Vigilance, Visiting Professor for Public Health Practice at George Washington University, says we still have a long way to go in solving food insecurity.

“People still don’t ‘get’ this issue — food security,” he says with resolve and not frustration. “People don’t understand that ‘limited access’ can mean either they have limited resources in being able to purchase healthy foods or limited access because of location – no nearby stores offer a decent variety of healthy food options,” Vigilance says.

Junk food is less expensive, and that’s what allows bad eating habits to form, Vigilance says from experience. At 5’9″, he used to weigh 250 lbs. before dropping down to his current 170 lbs.

“I used to have a problem with sodas. Back then, I didn’t know something a lot of people still don’t know: when food should be used as fuel, and when it should be used as fun. In general, we have too much fun with food. I know that sounds grouchy, but it’s true. We must respect food — get what we need and not more.”

Others at the hunger conference speak for those who might not be eating a lot of junk food, but desperately need healthy food. “There are 100,000 seniors in the DC area. Some are socially isolated, many are on a fixed income and use expensive medication, all while the cost of living is increasing,” says John Thompson, Executive Director of the District of Columbia Office on Aging.

“There are many misconceptions about seniors, the most common is that if they live in a nice home, they are not cash poor. But I know many who don’t have any liquid assets and need assistance, otherwise they will go hungry,” he shares.

Discussion among advocates, providers and academics at the conference aim to help bring necessary improvements to the system.

“The goal is to increase public awareness,” Thompson says. But also, to streamline resources by bringing together church, community and government services and matching resources to the needs of the senior community.”

Aaliyah Smith-Parker, program associate at DC Hunger Solutions, will be also be a featured speaker at the conference. She will be discussing public health issues of working poor families.

With backgrounds in research, policy and public service, speakers and attendees are working towards a common goal: trying to shrink the number of hungry in the DC metro area.

“I am continually trying to work myself out of a job,” Jenkins says.

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