The food bank recently refreshed its brand and adopted a new logo, which will unify efforts to help those struggling with hunger.

As the food bank prepares to transition into its new home and ultimately feed more residents, it also needs a greater web presence to effectively communicate with people. The new website makes it easier for people to find food bank resources and updates. The navigation is simpler, news is now accessible through multiple pages and program information is better organized.

The new website also seeks to engage in more conversations through social media. Although the food bank’s supply chain has geographical limitations, there are infinite possibilities online to share information with others. Through initiatives like the Healthy Eating Department’s Virtual Kitchen and Public Policy’s community outreach, the food bank will tap the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media outlets to generate discussions on accessing healthy meals.

The CAFB could not do this alone. The refreshed brand and web redesign were a collaborative effort among many community partners that include Pauline Weger of Signature Thinkers, Kristen Hemingway Toton, Ogilvy and Social Driver. A special thanks to them all.

So what do you think? Your feedback means a lot. Please share your thoughts below.

During the breakfast, the NALC Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Coordinator shared her personal struggle with hunger and how she has relied on local food pantries in recent years for assistance. “I am in a better situation now, but I still am not completely free from all assistance,” she explained. She went on to say that she was grateful for the help she received and is happy to spearhead this year’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. She concluded her message with these parting words, “You just never know who will benefit from the food collected from this drive.”

This Saturday, May 12, you can help someone struggling to get enough food to eat by following these three steps:

Help make a difference in the lives of the 641,000 residents at risk of hunger right here in the Washington Metro area. All donations will be delivered directly to the Capital Area Food Bank.

Breakfast for dinner? Dinner for lunch? Lunch for breakfast? Thinking outside the box at meal times is part of Healthy Eating on a Budget.

Looking to cultural culinary traditions around the world can provide inspiration for thinking creatively about meals during the day. Take Breakfast for example. While some parts of the world eat spicy fragrant broth with noodles for breakfast, others dine on plain yogurt, fish, and cold vegetable salads. Time, location, lifestyle, and economics make our food landscape dynamic and ever changing. It is this changing food landscape that can provide new ideas when finding ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget.

This breakfast idea is based on the classic sandwich. A piece of whole grain bread toasted with cheddar cheese and a drizzle or shmear of honey or jam. Fresh baby spinach fills the middle when the sandwich is hot and it wilts to perfection. This sandwich is great to grab in the morning when on the go.

Ingredients
Serves 1
2 slices of hearty whole grain bread
Drizzle of honey or a shmear of favorite jam (whatever lives in your cabinet)
2 slices of cheddar cheese (can also use Swiss, Mozzarella, etc.)
½ cup baby spinach

Directions
Drizzle honey or shmear jam onto both slices of bread and toast bread in oven at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Add one slice of cheese onto each piece of bread and toast 7 more minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with spinach and put sandwich together.

For years, the food bank’s new home existed only as a paper rendering; as a vision in the hearts and minds of the staff, board, donors and other community members who recognized that the growing need for food in the region could only be met with a bigger facility.

Today, the vision in that rendering has come to life. An idea has become walls, concrete floors, racks and conference rooms. It has become freezers and coolers capable of storing more of the fresh produce and nutritious food that our partner agencies request and our clients deserve. It has become a storage area capable of holding double the amount of food of our current space. It has become offices and training spaces that will help our partners and recipients prepare healthier meals and stretch their food dollars.

The true vision behind a larger food bank, however, is not about a building at all. It is about a community where people are better nourished, where seniors get the food they need to remain healthy and active, and where mothers and fathers do not have to choose between paying medical bills or feeding their families. The food bank’s expansion is one step towards a future filled with more food and more hope for all of our neighbors.

See through pictures how it all came together.

Farm Bill Background

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering reducing the Farm Bill by $23 billion and the U.S. Senate cuts are estimated at $33 billion.

The Capital Area Food Bank’s Public Policy and Community Outreach Department works to ensure that our Congressional representatives support the our nation’s nutrition safety net.

Those of us who work in the area of hunger-relief are very concerned that two important programs in the Farm Bill are in jeopardy of being cut – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamp benefits; and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). SNAP is facing $4.2 billion in funding cuts. Other programs in the Farm Bill that ensure that food is available for children, senior citizens and the disabled are also in danger of being reduced or cut altogether.

How You Can Help

Locate and contact your state’s U.S. Senators and House representative. Ask to speak to the person on staff who works on the Farm Bill. Feel free to use the script we prepared below:

Also, invite the member, or his/her staff member to volunteer at your organization and meet the people that you serve.

Finally, email the Capital Area Food Bank at advocacy@CapitalAreaFoodBank.org to let us know you made contact with one of your Congressional representatives or staff members and let us know what response you received.

The report, released at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. on April 27, found that even though food insecurity rates have remained relatively stable across the nation for the past two years, those communities that were previously known to have the highest rates of food insecurity have continued to climb.

“Map the Meal Gap 2012” verifies what we at the Capital Area Food Bank know – that we are facing a hunger crisis nationally and regionally. The study identifies 419,870 people in the CAFB’s service area who are food insecure, 100,000 of whom live in the District of Columbia. I want to point out that the Capital Area Food Bank uses a different method to measure those in our region who face hunger and our numbers are even higher.

Surprisingly enough, food insecurity extends to military families in the region. For example, when the Capital Area Food Bank sent a mobile food pantry to Fort Belvoir last June for the first time, 100 families were served monthly. Today there are over 250 families being served and we expect to expand our distribution to four additional military facilities – Quantico Marine Corps Base, Fort Myer, Bolling A.F.B. and Andrews A.F.B.

It is very important for you to understand that in order for the Capital Area Food Bank to respond effectively to increased hunger insecurity in the region, we will be moving into a new 123,000 square foot food distribution center in late July. This new facility will enable the CAFB to double its storage and distribution capacity over time and, hopefully, reach all of those in region who are facing hunger. With your support, we will accomplish our mission. Thank you.

Beginning this month, we will add new photos daily to the food bank’s Flickr account to give you a first-hand peek of the people in our department, our fantastic volunteers and more importantly the children we serve. The photos will also include food deliveries, afterschool meal programs, our new food distribution center, Weekend Bag packing and much more!

We are excited to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of the Food for Kids Department and share our story during the month of May.

To learn more about our Ambassador Volunteer program and how you can get involved, please click here.

During workshops on advocacy, partners learned about effective ways to influence the legislative process from a panel of experts led by Dr. Stephen Schneck, of CUA’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies. Caryn Long, senior policy counsel at Feeding America, and Brian Banks, director of public policy and community outreach at the food bank, informed partners about the state of the Farm Bill negotiations and invited partners to participate in the Community Outreach Council, a group organized to inform communities and legislators about threats to safety- net programs.

One of the most innovative new models of feeding those in need was presented by The Rev. Nancy Yarnell of Food Security for America, who led an in-depth workshop on food cooperatives, a method of creating long-term food security for groups of families. The food bank’s new Healthy Eating Department gave an overview of its initiatives: source more healthy food, provide education and trainings around that food, and utilize the educational spaces in the new facility to host nutrition and food growing educational events.

In the afternoon, Healthy Eating Department Director Susan Topping outlined how the nutrition initiatives will benefit the CAFB partner network. Laine Cidlowski of the DC Office of Planning also presented partners with details about the new Sustainable DC vision for the city, including governmental efforts to increase dramatically access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Banks presented the threats to food security programs such as SNAP and TEFAP coming before Congress. When he asked conference attendees to take action, Joan Conway, coordinator of the St. Camillus Catholic Church food pantry in Silver Spring, MD, called one of her senators, Ben Cardin, and let his office know that despite his promises of support, she needed him to “be an even bigger advocate” for protecting these programs. Having witnessed a 20 percent rise in demand at her pantry in the past three years, she felt it was time for a “take no prisoners” approach.

The food bank thanked Kenneth Jones, public affairs manager for Rent-A-Center, and the whole RAC team for their generous donation of 12 refrigerators for use by partner agencies to increase storage capacity.

The food bank was also proud to congratulate the first four partners to achieve “Top Shelf” certification, the premier training program for improving the operations of feeding programs. We thank all participants from the conference and invite you to attend our next one, the Northern Virginia Hunger Summit, on Friday, September 28.

Top Shelf Award Recipients and Presenters

Front Row (L-R): Gwen Pope and Adrienne Williams, Shabach! Emergency Resource and Empowerment Center; Joan Conway, St. Camillus Catholic Church; Greg Ten Eyck, Chair of the CAFB Board of Directors
Back Row (L-R): Wayne Marks, Covenant Community Food Pantry; Velma Speight and McKinley Crudup, Allen Chapel AME Church

Many people in and around the District do not have access to reasonably-priced, healthy food. There are no grocery stores in their areas that provide a selection of fresh produce. Also, farmers’ markets do not operate in these areas on the weekends. People who live in these food deserts either have to walk long distances, or drive to purchase nutritious, affordable food. Most of the time they make do with what is in the area, usually unhealthy options. Unfortunately, often the local options are corner stores and fast food outlets that do not offer fruits and vegetables or, if they do, they are not affordable.

What can be done about this? Unless or until farmers’ markets and supermarkets move into these areas the only option is to distribute fresh produce through a local food bank, such as the Capital Area Food Bank, through its 700 partner agencies located throughout the Washington metro area.

A healthy meal is an important part of a healthy life. Access to reasonably-priced fruits and vegetables can mean the difference between chronic health problems or a disease free life. The situation permitting food deserts to exist needs to change.

Last year alone, CAFB partner agencies received over 4 million pounds of donated food through the food bank’s Sister Hook-Up program, which connects emergency feeding programs with local grocery stores. And this summer, federal agencies will host food drives at their offices for the annual Feds Feed Families Food Drive, that to date has collected over a million pounds of food for residents in need.

More recently, the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, MD hosted a food drive and collected over 1,000 pounds of food and 721 dollars for CAFB partner agency St. Camillus, which equals 3,000 meals being distributed in the Silver Spring community.

Interested in creating your own Food Crossroads? Help us eradicate hunger by becoming a partner.