Blog

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of amazing and dedicated individuals have stepped up selflessly to ensure that their neighbors don’t go hungry amidst rising rates of unemployment and food insecurity. We spoke with Jan Augustine, a long-time CAFB donor who recently began to volunteer with us, to learn what motivates her to lend a helping hand for her neighbors in need.

Twice weekly, the Capital Christian Fellowship (CCF) opens its doors to feed their Maryland community. In addition to the variety of services the church provides, the CCF partners with the food bank to stock their in-house food pantry with fresh produce and staple ingredients. The food bank spoke to Executive Pastor Akeia Rossiter about how the Fellowship adapted to the challenges of the pandemic, kept its doors open, and served more families than ever before.

For many residents of DC’s Ward 8, limited stores and numerous transportation hurdles make healthy and affordable groceries hard to access. Our Curbside Groceries truck has set out to help change that by providing a full market basket of goods year-round on a store that’s mobile. DeJuan Mason, manager of the food bank’s new Curbside Groceries initiative and a 5-year resident of Ward 8, recently took time to share details about how she and her team are bringing new grocery options to her community, and what she loves about the job.

For over 30 years, a local nonprofit and Capital Area Food Bank partner, Food For All has been working to deliver groceries to those in need across the DC region. Like so many food bank partners, they’ve seen the need for emergency food skyrocket in the DC community over this last year of the pandemic. In just a matter of months, Food For All went from serving 140 households per week to serving over 3,4000 households per week.

Up until last March, Gabriel and Constancia Merrill had both worked for an organization that brought food to seniors in Washington, D.C. They had never needed food assistance before, but the pandemic caused them to lose their jobs due to curbed operations. For the Merrills, and so many impacted by the pandemic, receiving emergency food boxes helps them to stretch their available resources and make ends meet each month.

Joussell Lopez was a young teenager when he emigrated from Nicaragua to the United States to be with his family. Now, he’s in his last semester at Northern Virginia Community College before he’ll transfer to George Mason University. He’s passionate about ensuring others have access to the same educational opportunities - and have access to enough food to be successful in school. That's why he's become a member of the food bank's Client Leadership Council.

The food bank is excited to launch our 2021 client survey.

Since March of 2020, the food bank's wonderful volunteers have helped pack and distribute nearly 350,000 emergency food boxes, which play an important role as one of many, contactless ways we get food to neighbors in need during this challenging time. Here’s an inside look at how these emergency food boxes come together – and how they get out our doors to those who need them.