Legal community will compete vigorously with one another throughout May to raise enough funds to generate over one million meals for those facing food instability resulting from the COVID-19 national emergency
Contact: Danielle Hagen, danielle@nahigianstrategies.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, DC, May 3, 2021 – Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) today announced the kickoff of the 13th annual Food From the Bar (FFTB) campaign running from May 1 to May 31, 2021. The FFTB campaign challenges participating law firms, law societies and legal professionals in the Washington, DC area to help combat the growing hunger issue in our community which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forty-three legal organizations – the most participation the campaign has had to date – have signed on to compete in the 2021 campaign.
“The outstanding amount of participation by the DC legal community for the 2021 campaign will provide critical food stability to ensure that the Capital Area Food Bank can deliver on its mission to feed children and families in our region, especially those who are most impacted by the pandemic,” said FFTB co-chair and partner at K&L Gates, Andrew Cook.
Since 2008, DC’s legal community has made nearly five million meals possible through FFTB, and it had a record-breaking year in 2020, with $480,000 funds raised which provided over a million meals.
This year the campaign is raising the bar and calling on the DC legal community to do even more to meet the increasing need.
“One in six children in the Washington metro area is at risk of hunger, and, as the region’s legal community, we want to do everything we can to lessen that impact of the pandemic on hunger in the region,” said Kelly Fisher, co-chair of FFTB and Assistant General Counsel in the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. “We proudly smashed last year’s goal, and we know we can do more in 2021. Join us this May to help us have another record-breaking year!”
The COVID-19 public health emergency has caused food shortages impacting those in the area who are most vulnerable. As a result of the pandemic, hunger in the DC region increased 50 percent, and CAFB estimates that as many as 211,000 children in the Washington region may lack consistent access to nutritious meals.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly worsened hunger and food insecurity in our region, and the legal community has been there to help us meet the need among a growing number of our neighbors,” said Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. “The devastating economic impacts of the past year will have long term effects for hundreds of thousands of people, and I am honored that law firms, legal societies and legal professionals in our area are once again coming together to provide critical support through Food From the Bar.”
Interested law professionals and firms can sign up to participate throughout May 2021 by visiting the Capital Area Food Bank. Those in the legal community currently participating include:
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
- Arnold & Porter
- Ballard Spahr LLP
- Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP
- CAMBA
- Carlton Fields
- Cassidy Levy Kent
- Crowell & Moring LLP
- Davis Wright Tremaine
- DLA Piper LLP
- Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig
- Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
- Foley & Lardner LLP
- Freddie Mac Legal Division
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
- Friends of FFTB 2021
- Greater Washington Area Chapter, Women Lawyers Division, National Bar Association
- Hispanic Bar Association of DC
- Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
- Jackson & Campbell, P.C.
- K&L Gates LLP
- Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch
- Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
- Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
- King & Spalding
- Legal Tech Team (All Welcome)
- McGuireWoods LLP
- Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP
- Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Paul Hastings LLP
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
- Quarles & Brady LLP
- Reed Smith LLP
- Shearman & Sterling LLP
- South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C.
- Tanenholz & Associates, PLLC
- Thompson Coburn LLP
- The Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (DCTLA)
- Washington Bar Association
- Womble Bond Dickinson US LLP
- Zuckerman Spaeder LLP
- The Bar Association of the District of Columbia
ABOUT FOOD FROM THE BAR:
Food From the Bar is a fundraising event put on each year by the Capital Area Food Bank, and is the legal community’s response to hunger in the Washington, DC metropolitan region. During the campaign, law firms and legal professionals compete to win the most points supporting the food bank by donating money, food, or volunteering. In 2020, funds raised from participants helped provide over 1.2 million meals to children and their families in need.