His words continue to call us to do right. 

As the staff gathered in the food bank’s conference room, many shared their experiences working at the food bank.  A new member of the CAFB family, Roxann Seals, offered the following sentiments:

“On December 12, 2011, I became the 100^th member of the CAFB.  In my short time here I have been welcomed and made to feel a part of the CAFB family!

With the expansion of the food bank, I have the opportunity to be a part of history. I have a passion for life and moving forward; I am so very pleased to be part of the team that is moving the food bank forward to its rightful place as the premier food bank in the country!”

So heeding Dr. King’s word, we here at the food bank recognize the overwhelming suffering that people in our community face today and dedicate our energies to ensuring that all may eat and be a part of this grand family called the United States of America. 

Today, the need for the Capital Area Food Bank is greater than ever.  Hunger in the region has increased by over 25 percent and is persistent.  It’s an absolute tragedy that what started as a temporary relief effort has become a community institution.

In 1980, we were determined to strengthen and expand the network of community-based social service agencies that provided food and assistance to the needy.  The answer was a region-wide food bank that would have the ability to collect, store and distribute items. Last year, the CAFB distributed 30 million pounds of food, including 15 million pounds of fresh produce, through over 700 partner agencies located throughout the Washington metro region.

 As we face another dramatic increase in hunger Annie Gowen reminds in a recent Washington Post article, “About two-thirds of the public now believes there are strong conflicts between the rich and poor in America, making class a likelier source of tension than traditional flash points of race or nationality, a study from the Pew Research Center found.”

In response to this critical situation, the Capital Area Food Bank began construction on a new $37 million distribution center in January of 2011 that will enable us to double our current storage and distribution capacity over time. When the new facility is complete this June, the Capital Area Food Bank will relocate to Puerto Rico Ave., NE – a short walk from our current warehouse on Taylor Street, NE.

 A bigger facility means that we can distribute a higher quantity and quality of food.  It also means that our nutrition education and outreach programs, which address the root causes of hunger, can be expanded.  Our new warehouse space will be a large as two football fields, twice the size of our current space.  This means we can eventually accept and distribute twice as much food to our neighbors.

 Features and fixtures such as motion sensor lights, low-flow faucets, and solar panels – donated by BP – mean over $70,000 in energy cost savings per year – savings that leave us with more resources to help our neighbors.

 Many of our 700 partner agencies are very small nonprofit groups with few resources available to develop their own capacities to serve clients.  Our new Technology and Resource Center will house stations where agencies can place online food orders and apply for grants via the web.

With room to grow our base of volunteers – currently over 14,000 – we can provide them with special stations for sorting food.  They can place rice, beans and other nutritious bulk items into small containers for easy client access.

 New space will be provided for classrooms, along with commercial and teaching kitchens. The Kids Cafe program can provide a greater variety of after-school meals and snacks.  More seniors will receive much needed food through the Brown Bag Program.

We are grateful for the opportunity of providing an essential community service to the Washington metro area for the past 32 years. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his words have always inspired me.  Now, more than ever, they guide us and our mission, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” 

With any purchase of Unto Others Jewelry, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the CAFB. 

Wharton partnered with the food bank earlier this year to help raise awareness about local hunger and has participated in numerous CAFB initiatives. 

So show off your unique sense of fashion and help the thousands of families, children and seniors in our community struggling to get one of life’s most basic needs – food.

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.

We just finished our eighth week of the Farm Youth Initiative and despite this summer’s heat, our kids seem to love getting out of the city to visit Clagett Farm.  A joint venture of the CAFB and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Clagett is a 285-acre, certified organic farm located in Upper Marlboro, MD.  The FYI program consists of a two-day nutrition and gardening class for children from Kids Cafe sites in the Washington metropolitan area.  FYI education themes change every growing season, with this year’s theme centered on every child’s favorite thing – snack time!

The first day is a one-hour session on how to read an ingredient list in order to tell if you have a healthy snack.  The class uses hands-on demonstrations and activities to keep the kids interested including getting to prepare a snack together in groups.  The “edu-tainment” continues the next day with games and activities at Clagett Farm.  Students plant, water and harvest fresh vegetables from the “pizza” and “pasta” ingredient gardens.  Then, they make a healthy pasta salad together with the freshly picked vegetables.  They also get to play in the sprinkler and feed crickets to the Clagett chickens.

Close to 200 children participated in the program this summer.  The Farm Youth Initiative is a truly collaborative project.  The program works across a number of departments within the food bank, including the Food for Kids, Harvest for Health and the Nutrition Education departments. This year, FYI operated at 11 different sites in and around DC, with some sites participating more than once. 

As part of the Fresh Produce Grant shared between the CAFB and Clagett Farm, every child who goes through the two-day course receives a ½ CSA share, which works out to about 75 pounds of fresh, organic produce for every site who participates in the program.  In addition to the CSA shares the students take home with corresponding recipes, participants harvested over 145 pounds of fresh produce.

As one young participant put it, “This is more fun than all you can eat pizza and wing night at my summer camp!”

We couldn’t agree more.

Thank you to all of those who skipped lunch on Wednesday, September 14 to help feed our neighbors struggling with hunger.  The food bank really values your support. 

A special thanks to  Ambassador Against Hunger Paul Wharton, DC50 WDCW-TV and The Washington Examiner for supporting the Skip Lunch Feed A Bunch campaign; and to the following restaurants that pledged 10 percent support on September 14:   Napoleon, Peacock Cafe and Tuscana West.

You can still donate and help those in need.  Since September is Hunger Action Month, donations will be accepted through September 30.  To donate now, please click here. 

Sitting down to three meals a day shouldn’t be a choice.  But over 640,000 residents in the National Capital Region are forced to choose daily. 

I believe most people who offer a service through a non-profit organization hope that what they offer benefits the recipient in ways beyond the service itself.  This could be helping someone obtain an ID, which is a current barrier in that person finding housing or a job.  It could be opening a savings account for someone that leads that person to future financial security.  It could also be giving someone simple tools and confidence that lead that person to take charge of a situation, as was the case with a recent SNAP applicant.

A few months ago I worked with a retired woman in Maryland who wanted to apply for SNAP (formerly Food Stamp) benefits.  Applying for this program can require rounding up a significant amount of paperwork to prove your current financial and living situation, so she had to work hard to pull together what we needed to accompany her application.  In the process she let me know that she was worried about not having a cell phone to make emergency calls while not in the apartment and that her rent seemed far too high, as it was supposed to be based on her income.  She was nervous about approaching her apartment building’s management and uncertain about what to take with her.  Since we already had a lot of her financial information together, I encouraged her to take those documents along with the apartment information to the management office and ask them to take a look at her rent.

After we found out she was eligible for SNAP, I knew she was also eligible for a free cell phone through the government sponsored program Safelink Wireless.  We put in the application for the phone and she called me excitedly a few days later to let me know that the phone had arrived and that though she wasn’t very tech savvy, she’d already gotten it set up.  She was still, however, paying her high monthly rent and had not yet spoken to the management office. I encouraged her again to take care of this but wasn’t sure if she would go through with it or not.

Last week I received a phone call from this same woman to let me know that she was still receiving SNAP benefits and using her Safelink phone. She also told me that because of my prodding and the work we’d already done to get her organized, she’d asked her daughter to help her finish organizing her papers and approached the management office to find out about her rent. Through her rental office, she was able to sign up for a rent program and is now receiving a substantial credit toward her rent each month. She was very proud of her accomplishment and relieved to be away from the brink of financial crisis.

It all started with a SNAP application but the end result was a better financial picture; the ability to connect with people and services when away from home; and a more organized, confidant woman who is taking control of her life.  It’s often not the service itself but what the person receiving it does with the service or knowledge obtained that truly makes changes. 

All photos are shared on the food bank’s Flickr account.

Please continue to join us each weekday this month to follow our story.  We look forward to sharing it with you!

The term “top shelf” isn’t just for wine racks anymore.

The Capital Area Food Bank is excited to launch the new Top Shelf training program at its upcoming Metropolitan Area Hunger Conference on April 29, 2011. The Top Shelf curriculum will assist emergency feeding programs in their quest to take their program to the next level—regardless of what that may be.

So…what is so special about Top Shelf? Doesn’t the Agency Achievement Academy (A3) provide all of the training that partner organizations could ever need? Since A3 has been such a great resource for emergency food programs, CAFB decided to develop a comprehensive training and certification program that would provide an in-depth look at the core skills needed to run a successful emergency food program.  Organizations that complete the Top Shelf curriculum will have access to special grant opportunities and other food bank resources.

Please register now for an educational day that is sure to inspire you to reach your “Top Shelf”! Want more information? Click here.

Friday, April 29, 2011

8:45am-2:30pm

Jericho City of Praise

8601 Jericho City Drive

Landover, MD 20785