5 Million Meals but with Challenges Ahead!
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
As we head into fall, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that we accomplished together last year — and share what lies ahead. We are in a pivotal moment with DC Food Project - our growth over the past few years has been both invigorating but also eye-opening as the need for food access keeps getting larger and the resources are becoming much tighter. The demand for our services continues to rise. Schools reach out to us daily, requesting additional support for families facing ongoing financial strain due to the lasting effects of the pandemic, inflation, and the rollback of pandemic-era food assistance programs—including the universal free school meal program and SNAP. The uncertainty surrounding federal food aid makes this work even more urgent. We need major support to keep our efforts going and to ensure children in our community have what they need. There is a point where smaller non-profits such as ours can no longer continue without vast financial support - that time has come.
In support of our continued partnership with DC Central Kitchen, an anonymous donor has pledged to match all donations to
DC Food Project, up to $75,000.
Please consider making a donation to keep our work going. We must do more now, and together we can.
A Year of Growth and Impact
With your support, the 2024–2025 school year was our biggest yet. Together, we:
Onboarded 12 new Pantry schools and 19 new Share Table schools.
Delivered over 350,000 pounds of food to students and families across DC and Arlington, VA
Worked with more than 250 volunteers to support monthly distributions
Completed a multi-year expansion of Share Tables in Arlington thanks to a local grant, bringing Share Tables to every Arlington elementary school
In total, DC Food Project now partners with 75+ schools across DC and Arlington, VA schools — providing direct, dignified food access to thousands of students every month.
Celebrating a 5-Year Partnership, On Track for 5 Million Meals
The connection and collaboration of DCFP and DC Central Kitchen exemplifies the power of doing more together. What began as a reaction to help a few families in a few schools evolved into a pandemic-based partnership that’s currently on track to provide its 5 millionth meal by the end of the 2025-26 school year. The silver lining of the pandemic has been building relations like this, taking something organically inspired to build sustainable, empowering partnerships.
“DC Food Project is the ultimate community-based solution here in DC. Since the very worst of the pandemic, DC Central Kitchen has partnered with this incredible parent-led organization to meet the evolving needs of children and families during a sustained hunger crisis in our nation’s capital. DC Food Project is empowering schools to fight food insecurity and food waste and we are proud to count them as a core, strategic partner in our ongoing efforts. Supporting DC Food Project makes a direct, immediate impact on kids’ abilities to eat, learn, and thrive.” — Alex Moore, Chief Development Officer, DC CENTRAL KITCHEN - Learn more about this partnership HERE
A New School Year with Growing Needs - We are in urgent times.
This year, the need is greater than ever. We currently have 25+ schools on our waitlist — schools that are eager to launch our Pantry programs but don’t have the funding or infrastructure in place to do it alone.
And the broader landscape is only getting more challenging. With federal SNAP funding under threat and local governments already stretched thin, school-based food programs like ours are playing a bigger role in filling the gap. As national advocates have made clear, these proposed budget changes will dramatically increase food insecurity for children — especially here in DC, where nearly one in four students lives in a food-insecure household.
We’re Ready to Do More — With Your Help
As we begin the 2025–2026 school year, we’re focused on expanding our footprint, strengthening our partnerships, and raising the critical funds needed to support our waitlisted schools. Your support has helped us grow into a trusted partner in food access — and we’ll need your continued partnership to rise to the challenges ahead.
“When it comes to children skipping meals, research in past hunger reports has indicated that adults will generally choose to forego eating their own meals so that children in their households have enough food. However, in some cases respondents shared that they simply could not afford groceries. Among those respondents, 34% had to cut the size of their children’s meals, 19% had to skip a meal for their kids, and 9% were not able to feed their children for a whole day.”
What we know now:
The Decision to End 30-Year Food Security Report Will Hide the Struggle of Millions of Families to Put Food on the Table. For decades, this report has been one of the most trusted tools to understand hunger in America — shining a light on where progress is made and where families and specific populations are still struggling. Without it, advocates, service providers, and policymakers will lose critical data that guide our efforts to ensure every household has enough to eat.
In the face of these challenges, one thing is clear: We must prioritize our communities and come together — as neighbors, as partners, as a city — to ensure that no one in D.C. goes hungry.
Thank you, to our partners, our volunteers and all of you, for following us on this journey and raising your hand to say: we want to help. Your support today is as critical as ever. There is much to be done and our team is here for it.
As always, you can reach us at dcfoodproject@gmail.com
The DC Food Project Team
Alysa, Katie, Krista & Lucie