As we polish off the last of the leftovers from Thanksgiving, we want to remind everyone that Bread for the City’s Holiday Helpings campaign runs all the way through Christmas!

I came here years ago, to get help with food. But when I had a job with the local government I didn’t need the help. This summer I lost my job, so I’ve come back for food assistance - and this time, I’m also coming to the Pre-Employment Program. I’m studying for my GED. and looking for work again. I’m looking everywhere, but my unemployment ran out last month. So thank God for Bread for the City. It’s just not possible to really do a big meal up right without an income. Without Holiday Helpings, I just wouldn’t be able to purchase a turkey this year. And what’s Thanksgiving without a turkey! These kids are big, and they got appetites! —Ms. Washington

This year, we want to offer another way to stay in the Holiday Helpings Spirit. Contribute to the Holiday Helpings Story Bank by filling out this form here, or in the post below.

We’re collecting and curating stories about family, struggles, triumphs and kindnesses from folks in our community–clients, staff, volunteers and donors. Our hope is that the Story Bank can serve as a platform for Bread for the City clients and community members to share their experiences and insights with the world.

This month, we’ve been focusing on Holiday Helpings. See some of our first stories in this recent post here.

Now we invite you to share your own story about your holiday tradition, or your experience with Bread for the City’s Holiday Helpings. Tell us something you want the world to know! In the coming weeks, we’ll be trying out some new ways to share these stories with our community.

We just hosted a Great American SmokeOut here at Bread for the City!

The Great American SmokeOut is an annual event started by the American Cancer Society for tobacco users to begin the quitting process. Volunteers from our Health Resource Room in our Medical Clinic worked in collaboration with DC QUITLINE, a free service for D.C. residents that provides assistance in efforts to quit smoking.

At the event were over a dozen clients and staff who were interested in quitting smoking. A diverse history of smoking habits was in the room, from still smoking to having quit for several decades. Many had been smokers for over 40 years. We even had one client say that he had stopped smoking for over 10 years only to relapse.

While enjoying a meal of vegetarian chili (hence the ‘smoke out’ of the event’s name!), we talked about exactly what nicotine addiction is and how it affects your body. Afterwards we opened up a discussion to allow clients to share stories of successes and failures.

Each client brought their own perspective on why they were at the event and why they wanted to quit. One client said she hated every aspect of smoking, but just could not help herself from picking up a cigarette. She had come to the event to find out who could help her and where she could find support to help her quit.

Another gentleman at the event had been smoke-free for over 30 years. He provided some personal insight into the methods he used to quit tobacco, such as choosing a more expensive brand of cigarettes to financially discourage yourself from smoking.

After carefully listening to our clients, we found out that most have already attempted to quit once or twice but have been unsuccessful. According to DC QUITLINE, efforts to quit can be thwarted by issues such as stress, social influence, chemical dependence, or an inability to access supportive services and treatments that can make quitting more achievable. The process of quitting tobacco use is not only a physical, but also a very emotional process, which is why it is important for people to get the appropriate help.

There are free resources out here for our clients to access but they just need to be aware of them. DC Quitline, for instance, offers free counselling and nicotine replacements like patches, lozenges, gum, along with follow-up checkins and other services.

Studies show that success in quitting can often take several attempts. Quitting smoking, just like any other addiction, is a process. Unfortunately, many people are not aware that it is a process, which makes their quitting experience much more frustrating.

That’s where Bread for the City’s Health Education initiatives comes in. Our goal was to inform and empower clients to continue the quitting process no matter how hard the battle is. Through this space (and the ways in which we engage the rest of our medical clinic) our clients at Bread for the City are empowered with knowledge about their health, and guided towards healthier lives.

Many thanks to Breathe DC, the parent organization running DC QUITLINE, for their inspiration and service. As one of the clients at the event proclaimed after receiving their QUITLINE card, “This is exactly what I’ve been needing!”

–This post contributed by our DCPCA Community Health Corps members, Tonya Hamilton and Ran Xiao (above, right).

This year, Bread for the City has enlisted the help of a Story Squad to fill a Story Bank with anecdotes and messages from our clients. This month, we’ve been focusing on Holiday Helpings! The project is a way to give Bread for the City’s clients a platform to share their holiday traditions, recipes, opinions, encouragement, and experiences with the world.

And we invite you to share your own story — about your holiday tradition, your experience with our Holiday Helpings campaign, and so on — at our Story Bank form here.

Thanks to Angie Stackhouse and Judy Hawkins for producing these stories, and to Steve Goldenberg for photography.

Ms. Jackson: The holidays are when we communicate fellowship with one another. This is our time to give thanks -- not just for the food on the table but for the entire year that we’ve made it through, together.

Ms. Jackson:
I used to come here years ago. But then I got a job at Walter Reed as a supervisor. I lost [that job] in July when they closed us down. Lot of people out of work. And this I know is a place of support. We definitely need Holiday Helpings this year. I’m the youngest of 10 siblings, and we’ve all been through a lot — I lost sisters and a brother to violence. But there’s a lot of us still together. My sister and her family, my daughters are home from college, there may be 20 people at that table. And we all bring to the table ourselves, so this way I can still have food in my home for me and my daughters. A really big help.

Ms. W:
Anybody who has it, you should think about giving some back. Anybody. My brother has been homeless since 2000. He’s HIV positive, and has had trouble with drugs. He’s burned a lot of bridges, including with our family. But I told him he can come stay with me. We’ll see how it works out. I hope it will work. Everybody deserves a second chance. Nobody else in the family will give that to him, but we have to move forward with each other. Helping each other, that’s how we gotta do. And so we’ll see everyone together around the dinner table for the holidays soon!

Ms. Bessie

Ms. Anthony:
I have been a BFC client for quite sometime now.  I am very grateful for the food that Bread for the City provides for me especially for the holidays. I don’t have any place to cook it right now, but I do have some friends who can help me with that.

As Mr. J was picking up his holiday basket from the pantry, he shared a touching story with us: 
Mr. J comes from a family of eleven children. For a long time, his family had not gathered for the holidays — or really any time of the year, he told us. But last year all of that changed when his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Mr. J said that his mother’s illness has brought all of her children closer. Instead of spending the holiday apart, last Thanksgiving they shared food and fellowship with her in the hospital. This year he and his siblings are going to continue with this new holiday tradition. They are “playing it by ear,” so that whatever happens, they can be there to support their Mom, to see her laugh and be happy.

Bessie:
The holidays aren’t like they used to be when my husband was alive. I called him ‘Dad,’ and he was in the Navy. He made his way up through the ranks as a chef — and always wanted to have his own business. But he got sick.

Our parents were both in slavery. We kept hoping that things would get better. And they did. We had three kings and a princess together. One of my boys died. I don’t know where my daughter is. But you could spot her in a crowd — she looks just like me.

During the holidays, Dad would always do the cooking. He’d roast the turkey, fix the dressing. He’d have a big bird, we’d bring out all the best silver from my mother. We don’t have big meals like that any more.

This year I’ll go to with my niece’s house and cook with my granddaughter. She’s seven years old, and we’ll make this together. Her mom is a bus driver, which is okay – but if not for [Holiday Helpings], we just wouldn’t be able to do this.

Ms. Washington (posing here in front of our new mural) came with her daughters to Bread for the City's Pre-Employment Program:

Ms. Washington and her daughters:

I came here years ago, to get help with food. But when I had a job [with the local government] I didn’t need the help. This summer I lost my job, so I’ve come back for food assistance – and this time, I’m also coming to the Pre-Employment Program. I’m studying for my GED. and looking for work again. I’m looking everywhere, but my unemployment ran out last month. So thank God for Bread for the City. It’s just not possible to really do a big meal up right without an income. Without Holiday Helpings, I just wouldn’t be able to purchase a turkey this year. And what’s Thanksgiving without a turkey! These kids are big, and they got appetites!

Stories from Nigeria will often repeat the words na gode — meaning, “Thank you” — seven times. A common phrase in some cultures is, “Thank you seven times over.” Seven is a lucky number, a blessed number, the number of completion.

So on this greatest of American holidays (Thanksgiving), I want to thank Bread for the City seven times over.

• Thank you for the fresh vegetables that I ate from the rooftop garden that allowed me to eat nutritious meals.
• Thank you for allowing me to volunteer in the rooftop garden. The garden helped me stay fit, and the work was good for my soul.
• Thank you for the many workshops that were given to show me how to prepare healthy nutritious meals, re-pot my vegetables plants as they grew larger, teaching me how to manage my vegetable plants.
• Thank you for the advice I received from your nutritionist for working with me, and helping me to create a healthy nutritious menu. And to the doctors that are sincerely concerned with my well-being.
• Thank you for helping me maintain a healthy, wholesome lifestyle, with your physical fitness, acupuncture, and yoga classes.
• Thank you with your help with networking with other agencies that care about our community as much as Bread for the City.
• Thank you for always showing me dignity, respect, and honor.

I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. I am thankful to our God, and to BFC.

An op-ed appeared in the LA Times last week that we think is important. In “Let’s can the food drives”, by John Arnold (formerly of Feeding America) and Katherina Rosqueta (of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy), the authors estimate that cash donations to organizations like Bread for the City are up to 20 times more effective than donations of canned goods.

Food drives are a popular tradition, and we’re always inspired to see the lengths that people will go to bring food to our pantry. But the truth is that cash donations are by far the most effective way to help feed our neighbors in need.

There are lots of reasons:

• Cash donations are immediate, easy, and better for the environment. You don’t have to lug groceries on the Metro to the office, only for them to have to then make their way to Bread for the City.
• Bread for the City listens carefully to both our clients and our doctors to ensure that the food in our pantry is both wanted and healthful. In fact, we have a pretty specific list of foods that we request. Foods high in sodium and sugars will only contribute to the high incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other illnesses — and the most effective way for you to help this health initiative is to financially support it.
• Most importantly, Bread for the City can purchase food at a much lower cost than individuals can get at a grocery store! Consider the impact of your cash donation:

That’s right: we purchase in bulk, at wholesale, and so on, with prices anywhere from five to twenty times cheaper than what individuals can find at the grocery store. We can really make your dollar holler!

So, in conclusion: fundraising drives are fun and they make a huge difference.

It’s not too late to organize one of your own! Ask your friends and family to make cash donations to Holiday Helpings in honor of Thanksgiving. Just $28.85 will provide a complete, healthful holiday feast for a family of four — and that’s a real deal, if you ask me. Give to Holiday Helpings today.

At this time of year, feasting is in order. Many Thanksgiving dishes handed down from year to year are delicious, but not necessarily healthy. Most of us remember eating sweet potatoes swimming in cinnamon, butter, marshmallows and sugar. Delicious, right? It may nourish your spirit, but it’s not good for your body.

Good thing you don’t have to sacrifice taste and tradition to create a healthy meal! Sharon Feuer Gruber, BFC’s nutrition consultant, held a cooking class at the Southeast center last week to get people focused on healthier ways to cook some typical holiday foods. On the menu this month: cabbage salad, sweet potato wedges, and apple compote.

We started by working together to prep the food.

As the sweet potatoes were cooking and people were cutting up the fresh herbs for the salad, Sharon shared the health benefits of the foods they were using.  We talked about how the skin of the sweet potatoes has lots of fiber and nutrients and should be scrubbed and eaten along with the rest of the sweet potato. Why spend money on the whole sweet potato and then toss the healthiest part? And we talked about the nutritious fats the meal featured, including those in the walnuts we sprinkled on top of the apples.

The salad was simple — combine red cabbage, carrots, scallions, cilantro, orange segments, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of maple syrup in a big bowl. (Full recipes are below.) We served up the salad, piping hot sweet potato wedges, and delicious apple compote, and sat down to eat and talk.

We learned that several people had seen recipes like the ones Sharon demonstrated, but hadn’t tried them at home because the combination of foods wasn’t something that they normally ate. One client said the dishes were “surprisingly good.” And everyone ate them up. Several of the attendees were there because their doctors wanted them to change their diets. They wanted to prepare healthier meals for their families, and the cooking class seemed like a good place to start.

The class finished up by brainstorming ways to modify Stuffed Meatloaf, a recipe that was shared with the Holiday Helpings Story Bank earlier in the week. You can use the same tips with your favorite holiday dish!

Here are the original ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 pack of bacon
1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
½ lb. steamed shrimp
1 container crab meat
1 bottle barbecue sauce
1 pack of crackers
1 egg
1 nine inch baking pan

And here are the suggestions from the participants in the nutrition/cooking class:

- Use ground turkey or ground chicken instead of ground beef.
- Add fresh vegetables like green peppers, garlic, onions, and tomatoes.
- Add kidney beans.
- Use hot sauce, tomato paste, or tomato sauce instead of barbecue sauce.
- Use rice, corn flakes, or bread crumbs instead of crackers.
- Use egg whites instead of whole eggs.

Enjoy your holiday!  Have fun and think healthy.

Nutrition Class Recipes:

Rosemary-Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound total)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 stem and 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary leaves OR 2 tablespoons of dry rosemary
8 garlic cloves (peeled but not chopped)

1.    Preheat oven to 400°F.
2.    Heat oil briefly to just below simmer. Let a couple of rosemary stems and a few garlic cloves soak in it for about 10 minutes. Remove rosemary and garlic, reserving oil.
3.    Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
4.    Toss potatoes in the reserved oil, coating potatoes. Sprinkle potatoes with rosemary and place on baking sheet or shallow baking pan. Add the cloves of garlic.
5.    Roast about 20 minutes total, or until tender.

Berkeley Cabbage Salad

1 head purple cabbage
3 carrots
½ bunch scallions (also called green onions)
½ cup fresh cilantro (optional)
Olive oil ¼ cup
Apple cider vinegar 3 T
Maple syrup 2 t
Sesame oil (optional)
Mandarin orange segments (optional)

1. Thinly chop cabbage, carrots, scallions, and optional cilantro. Place in large bowl.
2. Whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and optional sesame oil. (Taste dressing to be sure proportions are to your liking.)
3. Toss salad with dressing and optional mandarin orange segments.

Apple compote

Apples
Cinnamon
Walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Chop apples into 1-inch cubes.
3. Place in shallow baking tray and cover bottom of tray with water.
4. Sprinkle apples with cinnamon.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender.
6. Optional: Sprinkle with chopped walnuts before serving.

As you know, we are already in the thick of Holiday Helpings, with more than 3,200 healthy holiday meals having been distributed to DC’s poorest households. However, this year we’re doing something a little different…

Every turkey we distribute now comes in its own specially made Holiday Helpings reusable bag. These sturdy and stylish new bags come to us thanks in large part to the continued generosity of three of our most loyal corporate sponsors: Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Avalere Health, and WilmerHale LLP.

Not only do these bags help families bring our holiday meals home, but they can be reused time and again in our food pantry and elsewhere. We love it when our clients bring back the reusable bags we distribute. In fact, we encourage their usage so strongly that we give out a bonus fresh vegetable to any client who brings their own bag.

We’ve been campaigning for nearly two years now to collect reusable bags for distribution to our food pantry clientele. Some bag facts:

• We’ve distributed more than 20,000 donated reusable bags to date.
• Each reusable bag saves Bread for the City 18 cents per visit — (the cost of disposable plastic and paper bags).
• Our reusable bag campaign has saved us approximately $4,000 to date, roughly the cost of feeding an additional 415 clients.

Of course, due to cost constraints, Bread for the City cannot print all the reusable bags we distribute throughout the year. So we continue to urge our friends, community members, donors and volunteers to donate new or gently used bags. Have more reusable grocery bags than you need? Have a tote from a conference collecting dust somewhere? Bring ‘em on in!

Even better, host a reusable bag drive at your office or elsewhere to encourage bag donations from others. We’ll gladly put them in the hands of our clients… filled with food, of course.

Best of all, host a Holiday Helpings food and donation drive and collect reusable bags that contain low-sodium stuffing, sugar-free cranberry sauce, canned yams or any other healthy, non-perishable items. Contact Emily Schneider for assistance getting started with your own Holiday Helpings and/or reusable bag drive!

Today’s post is contributed by Friend of Bread, Adrianne Burke. Thanks Adrianne!

When many think about Thanksgiving, they imagine mounds of ham, pot roast and brisket swimming in gravy — and of course, a turkey centerpiece. But what about the vegetarians among us?

A truly communal holiday tradition must include a range of foods — with meat-free options across the table. But as this terrible economic climate sends more families to seek help from assistance services, will specific dietary needs and preferences be met with a ‘take it or leave it’’ attitude?

Bread for the City believes that everyone should be able to enjoy a holiday meal according to their dietary needs and cultural preferences — and that’s why I’ve chosen to support their Holiday Helpings campaign.

Included within Bread for the City’s commitment to service with dignity and respect is their resolution to ensure that each client has the freedom to choose healthy foods that enrich their mind, body, and soul. The holiday meals provided through Holiday Helpings are filled with fresh vegetables, nutrient rich breads, abundant proteins, and by request–a meat-free Tofurky!

As an avid vegetarian I’ve always been a fan of Tofurky. For the last 5 years my family has included Tofurky for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. When I first advocated to have a Tofurky at dinner, my family was a bit skeptical. They were worried that it wouldn’t taste very good. Nevertheless, they agreed to take a bite of this new vegetarian roast, and sure enough everyone loved it! While my brother and I are the only “full-time vegetarians” in the family, my entire family–including the typical meat-eaters–now enjoy the Tofurky along with the rest of their meal. (See some Tofurky recipes here.)

Since moving to DC, I’ve learned that vegetarianism is a common practice in this area, so I felt it was important to secure some donations for those vegetarians who may need help affording their holiday dinner this year. Being familiar with Turtle Island Foods and their mission to “create delicious, nutritious, convenient and affordable vegetarian food that makes a difference in people’s lives,” donating to this food drive seemed right up their alley. I sent them an email explaining Bread for the City’s commitment to providing healthy food to the underserved citizens in the DC area; and without question their donations coordinator (yes, they actually have a person whose full time job is to donate Tofurkys!) wrote me an email explaining that they would love to help with the food drive.

Today, vegetarianism is more popular than ever; and with the help of organizations such as Bread for the City the idea that economic status must dictate one’s dietary options is gradually becoming a myth. Through Turtle Island Food’s generous Tofurky donations, Bread for the City is helping make sure that anyone–whether “meateater” or “non-meateater”–will be able to get the holiday meal they desire.

It’s not to late to start your own Holiday Helpings Drive drive this holiday season! To learn more, email Emmy or visit:

www.breadforthecity.com/HolidayDrives

This isn't our orchard. But it sure is pretty! Ours will take up to three years from planting (this spring) to fruiting. A long-term investment with a real return of at least 50,000 pounds of fruit each year.

You may have just heard the news on WAMU. Well, we are now pleased to announce here: Bread for the City has been granted access to a 1.8-acre plot of land just outside of the District, where we will plant nearly a thousand fruit trees that will supply our food pantries in the years ahead. We’re calling it City Orchard.

As WAMU reported today, the University of the District of Columbia has granted us access to nearly two acres of land on which we’ll plant apple and Asian pear trees, along with hundreds of blueberry and blackberry bushes.

“At full production, we’re estimating about 40,000 pounds of fruit, which will be available to thousands of [our clients],” explained Sharon Feuer Gruber, our recently-awarded Nutrition Consultant.

This exciting project is made possible by UDC’s College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability (CAUSES) and the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grants Program.

We also want to give special thanks to Casey Trees, an organization working to restore, enhance, and protect DC’s trees. Their partnership and technical advice has been absolutely essential to this project.

Years ago Bread for the City having its own orchard might have seemed like an outlandish scenario. But today it is a logical next step in our evolution. Through our Glean for the City program, our cooking and nutrition workshops, and our rooftop gardens, we’ve developed an array of innovative ways to connect people in need with fresh, locally grown produce and the opportunities to learn how to live healthfully on a low income.

WAMU interviewed a client of Sharon’s cooking workshop, Janet, who has struggled to keep her weight down since a knee injury made it harder for her to keep a diet of healthy food. Janet works with Sharon to find workable ways to stay nourished and fit.

Janet already has access to plenty of fresh vegetables through our pantry, thanks to our great Glean for the City program. Through Glean for the City, we rescue tons of fresh veggies from local farmers markets and area farms. And soon, thanks to City Orchard, we’ll be able to offer Janet that much fresh produce — and more!

Your continued support has tilled the soil. This tremendous progress is made possible by the commitment of thousands of generous people. And with your support we’ll be growing our own food in the years to come. Will you stand with us, and support this great progress? Make a gift in honor of our new orchard today!

My staff sent a scary statistic to my desk last week. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the estimated price of a traditional Thanksgiving meal has shot up 13% in just the past year alone.

Food prices have already been on the rise for years, and this recession really isn’t getting any better for the underemployed and unemployed among us. Is your neighbor going to be able to afford Thanksgiving? We know from the lines at our pantries that many wouldn’t — if not for Bread for the City, Holiday Helpings, and you.

For decades, we’ve run our Holiday Helpings campaign because of the simple belief that each of our clients should be able to share a celebratory meal with loved ones in the sanctity of their own home. And sadly, that work is more important now than ever before.

Fortunately, with your support Holiday Helpings has been growing bigger and better than ever before, too.

After sixteen years, I’m so glad I can still be inspired by this work.

So far this holiday season, we’ve already provided about 2,000 families with enough food for a complete, healthful holiday meal. We expect another 7,000 families to turn to us in the weeks ahead.

We need your help to make sure that our neighbors in greatest need can have a true holiday celebration. It costs just $28.85 to provide Holiday Helpings — a turkey and all the trimmings — to a family of four. How many families will you help this year?

Give today to Holiday Helpings. Thank you for standing with us.