Bread for the City

Wow. So far in our month-long campaign to raise money for a new truck, we’ve raised more than $8,800. That’s awesome!

If we can raise $1,200 in this final week, we’ll be able to go ahead and make a down payment on a new truck this month. That will give us just enough time to have a full fleet of vehicles come holiday season — our busiest time of year! Give to the Bread for the City Truck Fund today.

We have two centers and two drivers, but only one truck. Damon is pictured here in our old truck.

We knew it was only a matter of time before we would have to take the plunge and order a new truck. One truck just can’t keep the shelves of both of our pantries stocked at all times, given how much demand is coming to our door these days. And with only one truck, we’re often unable to take advantage of donation offers for bulk, surplus food. Our gleaning program was even cut short last year, leaving tons of fresh produce out to waste in the fields, because we had to start picking up our holiday turkey packages.

But given the great show of support from our community, we’re now almost able to order a new truck in time for the upcoming holiday season. We’re so grateful to all who have donated so far, and we want to thank you in advance for those who will rally with us at this final moment.

Help our Truck Fund cross the ten thousand dollar mark by making a donation today. With your support, we’ll be able to roll deep with giant orders of turkeys, stuffing, and all the other trimmings for thousands of families who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it.

Let’s get that new set of wheels. Thank you for your great generosity.

[Ed's note: We're pleased to offer you a guest post today by Amanda Formica of Miriam's Kitchen. Bread for the City was approached by Miriam's Kitchen last fall as they sought to develop a process for clients to shape and give feedback on their services. We are excited to continue the dialogue as we continue to build our own Client Advisory Board at Bread.]

This February, Miriam’s Kitchen launched its monthly Guest Advisory Group to provide a formal space for our guests to provide feedback on our programs, drive ideas for new projects, and gain advocacy skills. The group helps us work toward our greater goal to end chronic homelessness in DC. It is one way to be more democratic and for our guests to have greater collective voice in the organization.  This two part series will explore the importance of client advisory groups, with the first part describing programs at other social service agencies in DC, and the second part taking a closer look at Miriam’s Kitchen’s Guest Advisory Group.

How are other groups structured?

In order to answer this question, we did some research to see where similar groups already existed and what those groups look like. We found that many exist among groups working with people experiencing homelessness.  Some organizations include clients on their boards of directors, others have separate client boards of directors. The advisory group model is different because it does not have the same amount of voting power, but provides a formal space for direct feedback and leadership. As early as 1972, an article was published in the American Journal of Professional Psychology arguing for the formation of client advisory groups in mental health agencies.

What about DC?

In Washington, DC, there are a variety of other non-profits with established client involvement, including Bread for the City, who hosts this blog and who will soon blog about their advisory group! To figure out what would work best for Miriam’s Kitchen, we chose to look closely at advisory groups in two organizations that most similar to ours.  The Consumer Council at Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place is three years old and N Street Village’s Senior Peers program and Village Forum are both more than two years old. Although all of the groups have a common purpose, their structure and function differ widely in order to fit the needs of their communities.  Groups range from informally governed, public, and staff-facilitated to formally governed, confidential, and client-facilitated.

N Street Village’s Senior Peers program allows women who are leaders in the N Street community to be elected through an application process to serve as mentors to other women, serve as peer educators, and participate in twice monthly development meetings. One of these meetings is the Village Forum, facilitated by Nancy Narad, Associate Director of Programs. Senior Peers and staff attend the Village Forum, where women can come to present problems they have with decisions made by N Street staff, staff can present new program ideas, and senior peers organize events for the women. Women who participate receive formal leadership development workshops.

Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place’s Consumer Council meets monthly and is open to all clients at Friendship Place. The Council elects officers every six months and is facilitated by the president, who is also in charge of creating the agenda and recruiting new members. The council is governed by a set of by-laws that they wrote and voted on. Bill Long, Director of Volunteer and Community Education sits in on the meetings, but regularly reminds the council that they could choose to function without any CCHFP staff at any point. At the monthly Consumer Council meetings, clients provide feedback on CCHFP programs, formulate ideas for changes they want to see, organize surveys and events among clients, and hear ideas from CCHFP staff or other special guests.

Do you know of other client advisory groups in DC, or other models for involving clients? Bread for the City and Miriam’s Kitchen would like to hear from you! Together we can create best practices and expand programming that is client driven and directed.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog entry for more details on the Miriam’s Kitchen Guest Advisory Group, including how our group is structured, progress, and plans for the future!

We’re not just growing vegetables on our rooftops here at Bread for the City. We’re growing gardeners.

Some of our clients have never really seen a garden before, let alone worked in one themselves. Many people, however, have fond memories of gardening in their youth (as part of family and community traditions), but no longer have access to green space these days. For all, our rooftop gardens are an opportunity to learn about food at its source, and to develop some capacity for growing it ourselves.

So in addition to our daily open hours (Monday through Thursday, 9-11am), we’re also conducting gardening workshops to learn and practice together. In these workshops, a mix of staff, volunteers and clients learn how to make their own containers, how to plant them, and facts about different herbs. We learn the science behind the plants and then we our hands dirty. Participants also enjoy lunch prepared with fresh ingredients grown right there in the garden. At the end of the workshops, clients receive both produce and potted plants to take home for their own budding gardens!

Brenden Armstrong, a local professional horticulturist, has been joining us to share best practices and ideas for how to grow vegetables and herbs in containers. Here’s what Brenden says about the class:

During the first class clients had the opportunity to plant basil, tomato, and pepper plants. For the second class they planted more herbs including thyme, oregano, lavender, and mint.

All of these plants were chosen because they are easy to grow both within and outside of the home, and they also provide good yields. Most herbs will supply plenty throughout the year when harvested correctly; basil, for instance, can be harvested every few weeks. Tomatoes and peppers can also be grown easily and grow enough that a couple of plants will suffice for each person in the household.

Throughout the workshops we emphasized the opportunities to use materials around clients’ homes to reduce the costs of gardening. We talked about how you can make everyday items such as yogurt cups and plastic juice jugs into containers for growing vegetables and herbs.

Those who came to the workshops varied in their interests and backgrounds. Some participants had a lot of experience, and were even able to share their own knowledge; and for others this was their first time working with plants. Students caught on very quickly to what was taught and everyone contributed their thoughts to the class. Someone even called it “mind-opening.” People were especially pleased to be able to pot up their own plants and take them home.

Now, since these workshops were held late in the season, neither the clients nor I had a chance to start the plants from seed. (Starting plants from seed saves a lot of money and also allows you to choose from many more varieties than you can buy in the store.) So I made sure to choose seedlings that will nevertheless produce by the end of this season. This would allow participants to feel successful and make them more confident to continue gardening.

This is all still an experiment. So far we’ve received feedback from our clients on what kinds of plants we should grow, and what kinds of workshops we should be organizing. Ultimately, we hope to see clients take a leading role in all aspects of the garden.

Our workshops are developing into a real regular schedule, with some during the week and others on weekends (often with expert instruction by OLD CITY Green – stay tuned for another post on them). You can see the calendar here.

Meanwhile, you can feel free to come by to check out our garden even without a workshop! Ask the front desk if you’re in our building, or contact Jeff Wankel at (651) 325-8918 or jwankel@breadforthecity.org with any questions. And, of course, these programs are all made possible by your support. Please help this Community Supported Agriculture initiative by making a donation (of cash or soil!) today.