Bread for the City

For this year’s Holiday Helpings campaign, Bread for the City did things a bit differently.

We asked our supporters to forgo food drives, and instead come together to raise the funds that we need to keep our pantry stocked. Canned food drives are a common tradition, and over the years we’ve been so inspired by the demonstrations of support we’ve seen from our community. But the truth is that fundraising drives are far more effective for a number of reasons — so we’ve asked our community to consider the best interests of our clients.

We’ve written about the reasons why, and just this week Matthew Yglesias published a piece in Slate magazine that looks even further into the matter.

The gist of it is:

• We can buy far more food at wholesale with your money than you can buy at a store;
• We provide our clients with only nutritious food, which can be hard to ensure piece by piece in a food drive;
• Cash donations are hassle-free and easily tax-deductible! No extra trips to the store or our offices, no working with our schedule — just click and give.

Some people have offices that won’t allow fundraising drives, and other people just plain like to do canned food drives — and that’s okay! We are still accepting donated food, of course.

But I’m super pleased to report that, by and large, we’ve seen a tremendously positive response to this message – in fact, this year’s Holiday Helpings drive has seen more than 50% more fundraising drives than ever before. Altogether, you all have raised more than $111,000!

As a result, more than 16,000 people have been able to receive a complete holiday meal — turkeys and all the trimmings — from our pantry.

Michelle Lindsay of http://michellelindsayphotography.com runs an annual drive on her blog -- for each comment, she makes a donation to Holiday Helpings! Here’s what she says: “After two years of canned good drives, I decided to switch to dollars. I hadn't realized that while I was paying $1 for a canned item in the grocery store, Bread for the City themselves could purchase the same items at a substantial discount. I was relieved to know that cash donations would help so many more families this holiday season. Thank you, Bread for the City!” (Click the image above to comment on her blog!)

It’s so inspiring. And everyone’s participating. Last week, I was approached by one of the patients of our medical clinic, with $20 in her hand to donate on the spot. She thanked us for the work we do to help people like her, and I was amazed at how that circle of giving felt so complete. This is what community looks like. Thank you for making a great holiday season.
PS- It’s not too late to do your very own fundraising drive for Holiday Helpings! Email me a high res logo or image, along with a team name, and I can build your page for you. (Just like this: donate.breadforthecity.org/wankelpie) Easy as wankelpie.

You may remember earlier this year, when we launched a campaign to raise money for a new truck. Thanks to hundreds of supporters like you, we were able to order the truck in time for our Holiday Helpings campaign! That was awesome.

Even more awesome: General Motors heard about our need for more hauling capacity, so Chevrolet stepped in to donate a new van to us! With this new 15-passenger Express Flex Fuel van, we’re able to get more food from more sources, as well as support the dramatic increase of growth in our clothing bank’s supplies.

You may see this spiffy van out and about, hauling plants and equipment to our rooftop garden, and turkeys and trimmings for Holiday Helpings.

We want to extend our gratitude to Chevrolet for this amazing gift. Honk if you hear that!

Last week, the Washington Post reported on a disturbing scene at the Hubbard Place apartment complex, which we witnessed firsthand.

Line for housing at Hubbard. Photo by Valencia Mohammed, AFRO.

“Hundreds of low-income area residents waited in line overnight Monday into Tuesday in Columbia Heights, hoping for the chance to rent an affordable apartment in a recently renovated complex.”

Many hundreds. We were there, too, with a number of clients who are trying to find housing. We waited in the long line, in the cold rain, for about two and a half hours — just a fraction of the time that many others waited. Some of our clients left soon after we arrived; others wanted to wait and see. We were told several times that the list had reached capacity, but people still stayed, just in case. When we were told that we all had to leave, the line still stretched around the corner up the block ahead of us.

This sad scene revealed the deep need for housing in our city. The Washington Post oversimplified the situation a bit with its explanation: “Many low-income residents spend months or even years on the city’s waiting list of 20,000 for public housing units or federal housing vouchers.”

In actuality, there are different waiting lists — one maintained by the DC Housing Authority, and others maintained by HUD buildings such as Hubbard Place, each with its own process. But their waiting lists are all very long. For the vast majority, the waitlist times typically extend years into the future — only a small fraction make it in months as the Post suggests.

At Bread for the City, we’ve developed a specialized program to provide targeted assistance that can help people make the best of this system. The Housing Access Program (HAP) supports clients as they navigate the complex subsidized housing system of HUD properties. From our first blog post on the program:

Our goal … is to make this whole process more efficient. Through the program, we keep an internal database of all the properties that are accepting new applications, including things like the application itself, income requirements, and a list of necessary documents (photo ID, birth certificate, Social Security card, and proof of income, to name a few). We can then provide clients with a customized list of housing options for which they are eligible, making their search much easier. This customized list alone can be very helpful for anyone undertaking a broad search for housing.

[The HAP program] is specially designed to assist individuals with limited literacy skills, limited mobility, limited transportation funds, and/or are living with chronic medical or mental health concerns. For them, it is an invaluable resource to have a case manager assist in completing the applications and work with them to gather necessary documents and complete and submit these applications.

Last week’s Hubbard Place waitlist day was a good example of this program at work. We organized HAP participants who would have had a hard time getting there on their own — making phone calls, mailing letters, and arranging van transportation for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to get there. As a result, we showed up with 11 people — on less than a week’s notice.

In this instance, we met with disappointment. But we are pleased to report that the HAP program is working to find other opportunities here and there. In fact, on the very same day as the Hubbard fiasco, one of our clients signed a lease and received keys, and another’s name came to the top of the wait list and he went in for an interview.

These modest results are actually more encouraging than even we expected. When we launched the project, we were careful to make clear that this was not a short-term solution, and that it could take years before we saw real success. Already this year, we’ve helped nine people acquire housing.

Learn more about the fight to preserve affordable housing in DC, through our allies at ONE DC: http://www.onedconline.org

We’re relieved for these lucky few who can — with our active assistance — navigate the system effectively. And we are hopeful that the HAP program’s small successes will continue to accumulate. With support, persistence, and luck, some of those most in need can still find ways to make this system work for them.

But the vast majority of those in need have a truly daunting task. As ugly a sight as this scene was, DC residents need to know that it reflects the reality of housing in DC.

This Saturday, you can get involved in the effort to save affordable housing in the District: join the Housing for All rally, from noon to 2pm, at the MLK Library (901 G St NW0. Lunch will be served!

It’s that time of year again: the season for workplace giving!

For many of you, this is a time to review the Combined Federal Campaign or United Way catalogs to learn more about local nonprofits.

For me, this is when I renew my commitment to Bread for the City.

As a District resident and federal employee, I want my CFC giving to support organizations that impact my community in ways that I can see and feel. Bread for the City does exactly that — using non-traditional means to reach transformative ends with some of the most vulnerable people in our city.

I know this from personal experience. When my tenant association was struggling in a protracted battle with our management over badly-needed repairs, Bread for the City’s legal team provided us with essential advice and representation that helped us win a major settlement.

Their food pantry and social services department also supported so many of our families through difficult times.They have strengthened my community, so I am proud to support their work.

Every two weeks I connect with Bread for the City through my payroll contribution, and my heart is full.

Please join me today by selecting Bread for the City as part of your workplace giving. Getting started is easy:

Click HERE to give through the United Way campaign. (Bread’s UW number is 8219.)

Click HERE to give through the CFC campaign. (Bread’s CFC number is 61733.)

Of course, not everyone has an employer with a workplace giving program. But anyone can join Bread for the City’s monthly donor program! Signing up takes less than a minute and is a great way to support your community throughout the year. Join today!

Thank you for giving while you work.

Another post from client leader, Leonard Edwards! Read about his experiences with agriculture, then and now…

I loved my grandfather, James Madison. He ran a tobacco and dairy farm. I spent most of my summers on his farm. We would wake up around 5:00 in the morning, and I would help him bring the cows up from the lower grazing pastures to the milking bays. We would feed the hogs and check the chicken coops for eggs to eat at breakfast. While Granddaddy milked the cow, we would eat breakfast with the milk and eggs. The milk was so fresh my grandmother had to blow the creamy butter away from the rim of the pitcher so that the butter in the milk would not go into our cereal bowls. No pasteurization or preservatives, and, no surprise, we never got sick or had an allergic reaction to all that freshness. (Read More…)

For many of us living here in DC, the Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walkathon has become an annual tradition. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Walk reminds us how much we have to be thankful for, and shows us that there are still so many people in our own community who need help getting by.

This year’s walk was somewhat bittersweet, as it was the final year that Fannie Mae will be sponsoring the annual event. However, the weather was great… and the company we shared was even better. Bread for the City staff both past and present walked alongside volunteers, family, friends, and a few new faces eager to learn about the work we do.

We’re so thankful from the support that everyone has given us, from those who hosted a mini-walk (Shining Stars Montessori Academy) to those who sponsored us (Alston + Bird LLP).

Many thanks to all who were able to join us and show their support. The walk may be over now, but the message still endures: Washington has hundreds of thousands of neighbors that are living in poverty. You can still help us give our neediest residents something to be thankful for this year by supporting our Holiday Helpings campaign. Donate today!