Our Thanks and Summer Ask

“My children know they can come and ask for a snack if the family is experiencing food insecurity. Sometimes the snack is helping to change a mindset from negative thoughts to positive ones. We have utilized some of our whole groups to help bag pantry items while teaching the principles of problem solving world issues, e.g., hunger. The children love to know they are helping. Many children advocate for their families and ask for a bag of pantry items as young as 1st grade. The larger school community are alerted when a distribution occurs and sometimes offer to help distribute which lends to a "healing" and "bonding" activity.

We absolutely thank you for everything you are doing to help families maintain households with little to no income. Many of our families are experiencing multiple stressors, e.g., legal immigration, working under the table, working long hours, no day care, no medical insurance, domestic violence or multigenerational homes or single headed homes.”

-Diana Mata, Bruce-Monroe ES at Parkview

Hello DC Food Project Friends!

Well for most of our children, school has ended and the summer lifestyle has finally set in, but while some of us rejoice in this much-needed break others worry about their access to food. School closures bring added stress to families, as they can no longer rely on school-provided meals or our pantry program. With that, last week our team held our final Distribution of the year, stocking school pantries with non-perishable food, snacks, hot meals and toiletries for students to take home as they wait for summer meal sites to begin opening throughout the city.  This distribution was an incredible day, supported by our friends atCouncilmember Furmin’s office, PhRMA (thank you for all of the donations!), Support and Feed, Hungry Harvest, DC Central Kitchen, Capital Area Food Bank, DC Soccer Club and our amazing volunteers.   

Before we turn on our out of office notifications and look forward to summer road trips, barbecues, melting ice cream cones, and summer sunsets, we hoped to share one final update on our year at DC Food Project. 

UPDATE ON OUR PROGRAMS

As you know all too well many kids in schools face food shortages at school and at home.  Through our unique partnerships with schools throughout Washington, DC, we are able to implement our Share Table and Pantry programs to directly address this need, bringing food and toiletries to students in a dignified and easily accessible manner.  DC Food Project is currently supporting 62 schools within DCPS, DC Charter, and Arlington Public Schools – delivering over 15,000 pounds of food to children through monthly distributions, and supporting thousands of students in the area.

We have over 15 new schools waiting to launch our programs this fall, new partnerships to announce and a lot of work ahead. 

As we write this final end of school email, we are talking with one now letting us know the impact this program will have for their students once launched in the fall - many living in transient housing and homeless shelters.  “It is a very high need for us”, this school’s principal tells us, as she explains that those students who miss their meals at the homeless shelter will need to wait for the next day for food.“But that will change now because of the snacks and meals we provide that these kids can take with them and have.”

OUR ASK

As you ponder your summer plans, we’d love for you to consider supporting our programs.  Here are ways you can help::

$100 supports one student to access our Pantry throughout the school year

$250 covers one month of snacks in a Pantry supporting 25 pre-identified students

$500 covers one month of snacks in a Pantry supporting 50 pre-identified students

$2,000 supports one month of snacks in all Ward 8 Schools

$5,000 supports 1 month of Community Bag Meals

$20,000 (we know, it’s a lot, but it goes so very far) sponsors 1 month of Pantry Snacks and Toiletries for our Pantry Program

THANK YOU FROM OUR TEAM TO YOU:

We encourage everyone to check out our wonderful partner organizations and food distribution sites that provide an invaluable bridge during the summer months.  Our team has compiled a Summer Meals Site for those seeking additional help this summer, you can check it out HERE.

We will be back to you in a few weeks as we gear up for the coming school year!  

Thank you as always for all of your support! And as always, you can reach us at dcfoodproject@gmail.com

Happy Summer!
Alysa, Katie, Krista & Lucie