Bread for the City

Yesterday was a beautiful day to give lots of fresh food away!

Our second ever Free Farmers Market filled up the parking lot of our Northwest Center. About 150 people joined us throughout the day, and we distributed 800 pounds of fresh, free veggies — including surplus produce that we gleaned from local farms and farmers markets as well as a small amount (mostly basil and cilantro) from our own rooftop garden.

See photos from the event here:

Last year, we opened up our Southeast Center for our clients to browse a colorful array of free produce (gleaned from area farms and farmers markets), and took the opportunity to engage in learning about health, cooking, and nutrition on the spot. (See video here.) This year, we were joined by a bunch of friends who brought along art, garden education, and community resources. Many thanks to these wonderful community partners who made the event a success.

FRESHFARM Markets conducted eligibility screenings for food stamps and WIC, and shared information about their Double Value program which helps food stamps and WIC coupons go that critical extra mile at key farmers markets around the city.

Yao Afantchao, of University of DC’s cooperative extension, joined us to share information about ethnic crops and cooking. (Yao has brought us quite a few crops like gboma and avuvo and more, which are already flourishing in our rooftop gardens!)

Melissa Jones, nutrition and cooking educator, writer, joined us to demonstrate her delicious fritatta recipe in action.

Our new artist pal Decoy, of the community art collaborative Albus Cavus, was on hand to facilitate the creative decorations of our free reusable bags (and whatever else the kids wanted to paint on).

And finally, Saleemah and Jeremiah from Common Good City Farm joined us to share information about Common Good’s Green Tomorrows program for new learners of urban agricultural methods.

This is only the first of a series of open community events that we’re looking forward to. The Free Farmers Market will head back to the Southeast Center later this month. And you too, are welcome to join us for our Parking Lot Picnic at 6pm on July 21st. Rsvp with us by email.

How else can you help?

For one, you can email Gleanforthecity@breadforthecity.org to sign up for one of our farm trips or even our upcoming urban fruit tree foraging project.

Even more importantly, you can contribute to our Fridge Fund! With more capacity to keep fresh produce fresh all through the week, we’ll have more of these wonderful events in the future. Thank you!

Our medical clinic was all abuzz with some special guests on Monday, in honor of National HIV Testing Day!

Mayor Vincent Gray — along with Director of the DC Department of Health Dr. Mohamed Akhter, Senior Deputy Director of the Department of Health Dr. Gregory Pappas, and Deputy Mayor of DC Health and Human Services Beatriz “BB” Otero — stopped by Bread for the City’s Medical Clinic to discuss the importance of knowing your HIV status and demonstrate the ease of getting tested. To further their message, Mayor Gray and Ms. Otero took an on-the-spot test right here at our clinic.

We know that testing is an essential component of personal and community health. In the last year alone, Bread for the City has performed nearly 1,400 HIV tests, free of charge, for DC residents.

In addition to his test (which came back negative), Mayor Gray also stressed the important role that publicly funded needle exchange programs play in the city’s HIV prevention strategy. These programs have long shown success in reducing the incidents of HIV transmission by increasing access to sterile syringes. Bread for the City is now one of only three providers of needle exchange — and we have distributed over 11,000 clean needles through our program in the past year alone!

Since the closing of PreventionWorks! in February of this year, our needle provisions have more than doubled — and demand is expected to increase even further. However, funding for these crucial programs is currently at risk as Congress weighs the prospect of imposing new restrictions on how the city uses its funds.

As our Executive Director George Jones said when addressing the crowd, “Now is not the time to cut District funds for Needle Exchange Programs. We applaud our Mayor and the DC Department of Health for not only promoting universal HIV testing, but also for insisting that the Federal Government refrain from once again making a political football of the District’s right to protect its citizens through Needle Exchange programs like ours.”

Big thanks to Mayor Gray, Dr. Akhter, Dr. Pappas, and Deputy Mayor Otero for bringing attention to Bread for the City’s efforts and reminding people to get tested.

National HIV Testing Day was on Monday, but really now – every day is a good day for a test. Ask your doctor and know your status.

The Washington Post featured Bread for the City on its front page today, in a report on how service agencies like ours are coping with the dramatic rise in price of food.

The story looks at initiatives like our rooftop gardens and our Glean for the City project, which brings in tens of thousands of pounds of fresh produce from local farms and regional farmers markets — all for free. As the Post reports, this kind of action is “needed to help offset the rising cost of food, which hit an all-time high globally this year and is projected to increase between 3 and 4 percent in the United States by the end of the year.”

These hikes in food prices come in the face of both severe unemployment and cutbacks in federal and local funding for programs that help low-income families. The Post quotes the vice president of Feeding America, who calls this “a perfect storm” of hunger in America.

Now, here at Bread for the City we’re several years in to a comprehensive Nutrition Initiative to bring healthier food through our pantry and into our clients’ homes. But though it may be cheaper and easier to provide less nutritious offerings, we’re not going to step back from this commitment. As prices and demand rise, we’re just going to have to get more creative. That’s why I’m so proud of our Glean for the City initiative, which has rescued more than 100,000 pounds of fresh, free produce that would otherwise have gone to waste.

The Post actually breaks some news in their story: we’re about to bring Glean for the City right here within the District’s boundaries. This August, Bread for the City will initiative a city-wide ‘urban glean,’ harvesting fruit from fruit trees in back yards, public spaces — anywhere our volunteers can find it. (Interested in helping us organize an urban fruit gleaning? Email gleaning@breadforthecity.org.)

Of course, this innovation and expansion comes at a cost. We’re already packing our fridges to the max with rescued produce. In order to expand this program — and bring in even more free, healthy food for our clients — we’re going to need a refrigeration upgrade.

Our generous community of donors has already begun to rally around this need, starting up a Fridge Fund to pay for the new equipment. But a new fridge will cost us at least $10,000 more! Will you help us continue to grow our programs, rescue more free produce, and rise to meet the remarkable challenge of these trying times? Give to Bread for the City’s Fridge Fund today.

United Social Sports (USS) brings DC-area friends and groups together to compete in a wide range of sports and activities, including bocce, skeeball, kickball, and shuffleboard, to name a few. In addition to these leagues, USS is also known for their annual scavenger hunt, Hunt DC.

This year, they’ve chosen to make this fun event a benefit for Bread for the City!

So we’re putting the call out to our community to get involved. As they say: “Scurry around our Nations Capital on a hunt for forgotten places, off the wall items, and little known facts! After the hunt, it’s back to Aria Pizzeria & Bar in the Ronald Reagan Building courtyard for hunt results, music, cornhole, and a FREE drink!”

Here’s how we’ll benefit:

For each player that registers here, Bread for the City receives a $2 donation from USS! If you use the promo code “BREAD,” we get $5 AND you save $6 on your registration! So register today.

Just by registering, you’re supporting our work — and lining up for a whole lot of fun. And that’s just the beginning! Doing any of the following will earn points for your team and donations for us:

Bringing a canned food item for us earns 1 point per can (limit 5 items).

Make a $10 donation to Bread for the City will earn 2 points per donation (limit 5 donations).

Bring us a bag of organic soil for our garden and earn 2 points (limit 5 bags).

Bring a pot for planting in our garden and earn 1 point per pot (limit 5 pots).

Donations can be collected the day of the Hunt, or before, by simply dropping your donations off at Bread for the City’s Northwest Center (1525 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) during the following open hours:

Mondays: 9am-1:30pm

Wednesdays: 10am-4pm

Ask at the front desk for someone in Development and tell them you’re with USS. We’ll sign your donation receipt with “Hunt DC 2011” and by bringing that to the Hunt when you register, we’ll be able to tally up your points.

Visit the Hunt webpage for all the information you need.

Speaking of a new and improved blog, next week, several members of Bread for the City’s blogging team will be joining some of DC’s finest and funkiest at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, Michigan!

Photo courtesy of AMC website

Here at Bread for the City, we use media to share what’s happening under (and on) our roof. We also work with our clients to bear witness to some of the most important issues facing our city. As I’ve spent time at Bread working on food issues, I’ve become increasingly excited about the possibilities of story-telling, information-sharing, and communication generally, in building a community of advocates for a healthier food system in D.C.

For me, the Allied Media Conference offers an exciting opportunity to explore why and how to do this kind of work better. The conference is an skill-sharing extravaganza that emphasizes the role of creative and collaborative communications in building a more just world.

Here are some things I’m looking forward to:

• Exploring more fully the connection between digital justice and food justice
• Learning about participatory budgeting – a method for engaging members of a community in decisions of how resources should be allocated
• Hearing about some successful “narrative campaigns,” and how storybanking can be used in these campaigns
• Workshoping my own writing skills
• Riding a bicycle blender!

Are you heading to Detroit as well? Have thoughts on what information we should glean? Want to see these conversations and opportunities for sharing skills to happen in DC? Let us know in the comments.

It’s that time again: on July 21st, we want you to grab a plate, pull up a chair, and break bread with Bread for the City at our Annual Parking Lot Picnic!

It’s been a year of major transition and growth, so we’re especially excited to celebrate our progress with the entire Bread for the City family — staff, volunteers, clients, donors, neighbors, and you, of course. So we’ll have food, music, family-friendly activities, garden tours, and cooking demonstrations, all free and open to the community. Bring your people, too!

Please rsvp by July 13th to rsvp@breadforthecity.org or 202-480-8908. We hope to see you there!

P.S. Our work is made possible by our generous community of supporters — so the best opportunity to support our work is during the moment when our whole community comes together. You can help us achieve our goals for the year ahead — including getting new refrigerators, more soil and pots for our gardens, and a full time dentist for our medical clinic — by sponsoring this event. Email me to learn more about corporate sponsorship opportunities, or click here to make a direct donation in honor of this picnic. Thank you!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new BreadfortheCity.org!

We’re still working out a lot of kinks and settling in to our new digs, so please pardon all the dust. Be sure to send me (Greg at gbloom[at]breadforthecity[dot]org) a heads up if you stumble across something that’s really broken.

Among other improvements, our blog is now consolidated into our proper website – at http://breadforthecity.org/blog. To subscribe by RSS, please point your feed-reader to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/breadforthecity/BFCBlog

Final note: a huge thanks to Charise Van Liew, who rebuilt our site from bottom-up in WordPress. She very well may be able to help you out on a project too! Reach her on LinkedIn or Twitter

Check out our Annual Report, which details the Fiscal Year 2010 accomplishments of our many programs, the Northwest Expansion, our phenomenal staff, generous donors, and resourceful clients. Browse it below. (You can download it as a PDF here.)

Our deep gratitude to Groff Creative, who provided their pro bono design services for this report (along with our previous annual reports). It’s dedicated support like this that makes all of our work possible. Thank you to Groff Creative and all of our supporters!

Take a read through our Summer 2011 newsletter, featuring stories on our rooftop garden initiatives, our pantry’s expansion to Northeast DC residents, our new job development program, and more!

Angie Stackhouse is a Bread for the City client and a local advocate for social justice issues, particularly for the homeless community. Angie has been helping Bread for the City with the food policy council planning process with the Health Affordable Food for All Coalition, and recently traveled attended a food policy conference with others from Bread for the City. Angie has blogged with us in the past about homelessness in DC.

I came to the Community Food Security Coalition’s local policy conference to find out how we can better serve the homeless community in terms of getting fresh vegetables in shelters. Once there, I met a lot of people who talked about how that’s just one important way among many that we can improve our communities’ food systems, improving our health while also developing economic opportunity.

And I realized that what we all want is healthy affordable food for all – so let’s do it!

How do we make that happen? First, you need to think about who needs to be brought to the table. You need to do the groundwork – going into the communities and asking people how they feel about their food choices and how they feel about not having fresh food in their neighborhood.

You also need to have people who know about things like zoning, people who are affiliated with the Health department (to highlight the importance of sickness & disease happening in the neighborhoods), and folks who have data linking lack of fresh vegetables to sickness and obesity (that’ll help convince City Council how important it is). Then, you start thinking about how to work together to make it happen.

I learned that having something like a food policy council can help make sure the City Council recognizes that people need fresh & healthy food. And I learned that successful food policy councils have participation and leadership from residents who themselves are struggling with these problems and searching for solutions.

But we also learned that you’ve got to be strategic. You have to know how to use the tools that you have with limited resources. Being strategic means being able to clearly define what you’re trying to do, which also makes people more likely to want to sign on.

So let’s get to work! Here are some of my favorite ideas from the conference:

• Gardening in a way that creates jobs, and supporting healthy foods in shelters will also encourage homeless people to participate in becoming healthy themselves, and feeling more empowered over their own lives. The Gateway Greening Project in St. Louis is one example.
• Food trucks is an awesome way to get food across the city while also creating jobs. Green carts in New York are an example of that.
• Transportation matters more for low-income residents. To engage in garden projects, markets, and so on, they may need additional support for travel to and from.
• Everything Cleveland is doing.
• Food justice can and should also mean economic justice. Bringing in healthy retail can support local job creation, for example.

And here’s what I’m going to be doing now that I’m back in DC:

• Check out the websites of all the organizations I learned about, including a business that specifically caters to the homeless community.
• Dig deeper into the mobile market and mobile garden idea and who’s working on it in DC.
• Start doing more outreach and organizing. We know everyone who needs to be at the table – let’s make sure they’re there.

By Angie Stackhouse