Bread for the City

>

>Last Thursday, clients, volunteers, supporters and staff of Bread for the City gathered for our Third Annual Parking Lot Picnic. We grilled out, chilled out, and celebrated our shared passion for the work of Bread for the City.

View the entire photo album on our flickr page.

Check out our video recap of the event below. (It’s only 2mns!)

Major props go out to our two sponsors for this event: B.K. Miller Meats & Liquor and Giant Food. Without their generous support, this event would not have been possible.

Hope to see you next year!

>You may remember that, as we began our reusable bag drive to help our clients avoid the newly-implemented bag tax, we received a pledge from Safeway of more than 7,000 reusable bags for our pantry. Well, our partnership with Safeway doesn’t stop there.

Recently, I had the privilege of attending the breakfast ceremony hosted by the Safeway Foundation where thousands of dollars in grants were awarded to local charities. Among the groups receiving funding was Bread for the City who received a grant in the amount of $5,000! This funding will help us provide food to more than 6,000 people.

“The employees of Safeway are proud to be able to support local organizations like this that touch the lives of our customers,” said Gregory Ten Eyeck (right), chairman of The Safeway Foundation for the Eastern Division.

The Foundation is funded through the generous contributions of Safeway employees throughout its Eastern Division. The decisions to whom grants are given are made by a committee comprised of a diverse group of Safeway employees from throughout its local operating area. The Foundation places a special emphasis on organizations in the areas of hunger relief, education, special needs, and health and human services and strives to return contributions to the neighborhoods shared by their stores.

Without the dedicated support of Safeway and the host of other organizations in our community who partner with us in our mission, we simply could not do what we do. So we at Bread for the City offer a big “Thank You!” to the Safeway employees and foundation for their support. And we look forward to continuing our partnership in the future.

>
Next week, Bread for the City is co-sponsoring the 3rd annual Tenant Town Hall. On Saturday, July 31, 2010, from 2:30 to 5 pm, at First Trinity Church (309 E St NW), we’ll join with tenants from across the city to talk to elected officials and government agencies to talk about housing needs and solutions.

>We are seeking a social services supervisor to provide supervision of case managers in the SE Social Services Program of Bread for the City. The position also involves providing some limited case work to Bread for the City clients.

Specific duties include:

• Provide regular supervision to a staff of 3 to 4 case managers, an intake coordinator and interns working in the Social Services Program at the SE Center. This includes weekly individual meetings to provide training, support and guidance to the team.
• Collaborate with the Social Services Director in SE to complete assessments for new case management clients.
• Assume leadership and direct oversight for specific projects within the Social Services Program.
• Provide case management and some individual counseling services to an average of 10 to 15 cases.
• Assist with social service walk-in and on-call hours. This involves providing brief advice and referral to resources for clients who arrive on a walk-in basis.
• Together with the Program Director, provide in-service training and support to staff on a monthly basis on issues relating to individual cases, case management and social work skills and techniques, and problem-solving approaches to working with clients.
• Represent Bread for the City and the Social Services Program in contacts with other community-based organizations, and identify and foster relationships to benefit mutual clients across agencies.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• A Masters Degree in social work, counseling, psychology, or human development, from an accredited college or university with a minimum of 2 years experience in the areas of supervision, mental health, substance abuse and poverty. Knowledge of public benefits a plus.
• Must be licensed or license-eligible (LGSW, LICSW or LPC)
• Previous experience providing leadership and/or supervision to employees in a social services setting
• Commitment to providing services in an atmosphere of dignity and respect
• Ability to work with mentally ill and/or low-income people in an inner city community setting
• Excellent time management skills and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Keen knowledge of resources and services available to residents of the District of Columbia a plus
• Knowledge of government programs to low-income individuals and families helpful
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Spanish speaking ability helpful, but not required

Send resume, cover letter and writing sample to:
Lynda L. Brown, MA
SE Center Director
Director of Social Services
Fax (202) 574-1536
lbrown@breadforthecity.org

>Aaaand we’re gleaning again!

On Saturday, more than a dozen volunteers drove down to Parker Farms in Colonial Beach, VA. Some of our volunteers were BFC donors; others found out about the project from an NPR story about it last year; and still others learned about it from the DC Food For All. All of them were ready to roll up their sleeves and come to the rescue of the farm’s surplus sweet corn.

There was more out there than we’d expected. We gleaned just one acre out of 100s that were available to us, and left at the end with more than 1,700lbs of corn in tow. Farmer Rod Parker met us in the fields, and at the end of the day he told me, “my only complaint is that you didn’t bring enough bins.”

Why is so much corn left in the farm’s field? Here are some reasons:

1) Human error: laborers inevitably miss a certain amount of corn that is market-ready and perfect. Farmers often opt not to pay for a second pass through the fields, but are happy for volunteers to come do it.

2) Undersized/under ripe: corn that is too small to sell is left behind, even if it is edible. Shoppers are so picky that almost every type of produce has size minimums and shape requirements. Under-ripe corn is also left behind. It’s not as tasty or filling, but still edible — and often ripened by the time we get to it.

3) Damaged: corn that has been eaten or broken. There wasn’t actually that much corn that was actually damaged, and we left it all behind too. There was way more of the good stuff to be had.

This successful trip marks the launch of the second year of Glean for the City, a project that already feels like a cherished tradition around here. Last year, we rescued 50,000 lbs. of fresh, surplus produce from farms and farmers markets, including apples, bell peppers, broccoli, and a plethora of other fruits and veggies — an average of 2,000 lbs. of fresh produce every week! All for free, all food that otherwise would have gone to waste, but instead went to the kitchen table of the DC residents who need it the most.

The farmers love it, our volunteers love it, our clients love it, and our community was so enthusiastic about it that you all helped us win a contest on the internet, ensuring that we had enough funding to cover the cost of a full-time coordinator to manage the program. (Speaking as this year’s new coordinator, I want to say thank you!)

You’ll be really excited by what we have in store this year. First of all, we’ve extended the gleaning season by one month, and connected with new farm partners to bring in more quantity and a healthier variety. We aim to bring in 3,000 lbs per week this time. And we’re even partnering with other local food pantries to run coordinated gleanings and share the bounty!

In fact, I hope to someday honor our Food Pantry Director Ted Pringle’s goal of ultimately replacing all canned vegetables in our pantry with farm-fresh produce.

If you’re interested in volunteering, or if your community group or organization might want to partner with us, please email me. In the meantime, if you’d like to support this work, you can help us cover the cost of transportation and other things like bins, bags, gloves, and so on, by making a donation to Glean for the City today.

>Our 3rd Annual Parking Lot picnic is this Thursday evening from 6 – 8 pm.

We’ll be lightin’ up the grill in the parking lot of our Northwest Center, serving up some delicious food, spending time with the BFC community, and hearing of all the new and exciting changes in store for 2011.

The developers and architects of our 11,000 square-foot expansion will be in attendance and will be giving an update on the project. (You can read more about our expansion in our recent Beyond Bread post here.)

RSVP TODAY! Call or email Nathan LaBorie at 202-386-7611 or nlaborie@breadforthecity.org.
We hope to see you there!

In case you missed it, the Picnic will be on Thursday, July 22nd, from 6-8pm. RSVP now–call or email Nathan LaBorie at 202-386-7611 or nlaborie@breadforthecity.org.

>

If you’ve passed by our Northwest Center in the past couple of months, you’ve probably noticed that construction of our new expansion is well underway. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the construction site last week, and the spaces I saw got me very excited for this fall, when the building will be finished!

The new entryway to our building will be spacious and inviting, with a staircase and elevator and open hallways. A wide reception area will feature plenty of seating for visitors. (One could generously describe our current layout as ‘cozy,’ with seating space only along a narrow hallway in between offices and intake rooms; this new layout will be a great enhancement.)

And oh, how these services will be enhanced! Most of all, our Medical Clinic is in for a major upgrade: not only will we have more exam rooms, a larger dispensary and a new lab, but in time, our new facility will even accommodate a dental suite. In sum, the new medical clinic in will ultimately allow us to triple our capacity to provide free health care to our community.

Our Social Services department and Legal Clinic will expand into the space previously occupied by the Medical Clinic, providing them with more private meeting space for client visits.

Once the wall between our new and old buildings gets blasted through, our food pantry will be re-organized to accommodate Client Choice, the successful new way of distributing food that we’ve been practicing in our Southeast Center since March.

Another exciting feature of the expansion will actually be found on top of the building. With the help of DC Greenworks, we’ll build a 3500 square foot green roof. Not only will this reduce storm water runoff, reduce our heating and cooling costs, and reduce our input to the urban heat island effect, but it will also eventually host a garden in which we can grow our own herbs and vegetables. Ultimately we hope to involve client volunteers in the growing and harvesting of this produce, for their own consumption and to be shared with the pantry. Check back for more details on this project soon.

Soon, this roof will be covered in green!

Other features of our new expansion include a much larger conference room, more bathrooms, and office space for our Administrative and Development staff! [Ed: woo!]

We love our current building, and are pleased to say that it will remain in good use, and in its current (historically-designated) state. But the new expansion will allow us to provide services to our clients on a broader scale, more efficiently, and in a space that fosters a collaborative atmosphere of dignity and respect. We invite our clients, neighbors, donors and volunteers to join us in envisioning the community center that we can become.

In fact, we need all of you to make it happen. The actual construction of the building has been made possible by the DC Primary Care Association, through its Medical Homes DC capital initiative. With this support and gifts from several individuals and private foundations, we’ve secured more than 97% of the $8.3 million that the expansion will cost; but the remaining 3% (just over $120,000) is what will make the new facility operational. For that final amount, we’re turning to our generous community. Fortunately, we’ve been supported by this community for more than 35 years now!

If you, too, are excited for this expansion, please join our capital campaign by making a donation today: http://breadforthecity.org/capitalcampaign.

Be sure to check back soon for more posts about the upcoming developments. Thanks to all who are making this expansion possible.

>In the past week, we’ve been flooded with condolences and remembrances of our beloved colleague and friend, Ted Pringle. (Read a message about Ted’s passing, by our Executive Director George Jones.)

Ted was the director of our Food and Clothing Program — and he was much more than that. Today, Bread for the City staff will join Ted’s family at his memorial service. In the meantime, we would like to share some of the remembrances that our community has shared with us:

> As it is only mid-July and we have many more weeks of summer ahead of us, we are still looking for more electric fans for our clients! The entire region is suffering as temperatures continue to hover in the 80’s, 90’s, and above, but our clients, all of whom are low-income DC residents, have fewer options than most when it comes to escaping the heat. While we have all survived the first heat waves of the season, many of our clients have done so without the luxury of air conditioning. We have received several very generous fan donations, but the need for fans still outnumbers our current stock. If you haven’t already, please take a look around your home and bring in any unused and unwanted fans! We’ve begun to receive phone calls from clients inquiring about getting a free fan from Bread for the City, and we know the demand will only grow as the summer continues. As one client at the food pantry said this week, “It would help me so much if you could get me a fan. I don’t care if it’s broke, I’ll fix it. With this heat, I need all the help I can get!”