Happy New Year from Bread for the City

It’s been an incredible year. Every one of our programs has grown in 2008, as Bread for the City helps more and more people make it through increasingly tough times. And it’s all made possible by the generous support of our community.

In the last week, I looked back over our year and selected some images that I think best highlight 2008. Take a look at the slideshow below, or go to our Flickr set here, and if you have pictures of your own, send them to us.



UPDATE: just realized that the captions and titles don't show in this embedded slideshow. To get the full effect, go to the slideshow here, and click on the images or click “Show Info” on the top right menu bar to reveal the captions and titles.

Again, thank you to everyone who makes our work possible.

Holiday Helpings Wrap-up: the Final Turkey

Our Holiday Helpings campaign wrapped up last week, and it ended up topping an impressive 12,250 turkeys. Originally, we intended to feed 10,000 families with these special turkey dinners, but demand was such that we exceeded that goal by more than 20%! Wow.

To put it all in some perspective, let me share with you a bit about the very last person to receive a Holiday Helpings turkey, right in the last few hours before Christmas Eve.



Janie Lawson, who lives in Southwest DC, has been a Bread for the City client for three years. This was the first time she participated in the Holiday Helpings program. She told me she would cook this big bird all through Christmas Eve. She was thrilled to have the whole house smelling good for tomorrow, when her grandchildren and great-grandchildren (seven of them!) will join together at her home. And she also told me that she was excited to open up her table for a homeless man from her neighborhood who occasionally helps her with household chores.

“It’s going to be a great Christmas,” Janie said. Thanks to all those who helped us make this a great Holiday Helpings season, and a great year.

What does DC need?

This story comes to us courtesy of The DC Education Blog. WaPo reported on December 23rd Mayor Fenty's office:

is seeking to redevelop 11 now-shuttered public schools, inviting developers to submit proposals that can include retail space, offices and high-priced and affordable housing.

More than likely the Mayor has ideas of his own. A couple of the schools are prime targets to condo development since they're close to Metro stations and, especially in the case of Hine Junior High, happen to be in neighborhoods that are already pretty affluent. Still, some of the shuttered schools are in areas that are chronically underserved. Mayor Fenty has asked non-profits to add their proposals in with the rest, which has me thinking about what we lack. Buildings the size of schools have huge potential. Medical clinics, affordable housing developments, homeless shelters, and a number of other support structures require large spaces to operate best. Considering the dearth of clinics, housing, and the recent removal of the Franklin Shelter, it would be a great show of support to the community for the Mayor's Office to seriously consider dedicating these properties to DC's safety net.

But, assuming the DC non-profit community gets some help, what's our greatest need? Is it housing? A literacy/job placement center? A medical clinic?

Beyond Bread: Vacation Roundup

I may take a vacation from time to time, but Bread for the City never does. All last week the Internet busted up with news. We'll have the full roundup later this week, but here are the Bread for the City stories I missed (oops):

~With the election over, non-profits are writing all kinds of letters to President-Elect Obama. Bread for the City has been asked to sign on to many of the aforementioned missives, and (as you might expect) we have ladled our support onto only the best and brightest. One such letter has made its way onto the series of tubes we call the Internet. Bread for the city is proud to support The National Coalition of Women of Color in Construction (in partnership with WOW and Women Work!) as they ensure the necessary infrastructure jobs that will be created will include a healthy dose of women.

~Dr. Miller, a former board member and long-time friend, posted a very nice write-up about us on his Health Policy and Communications blog. Bread for the City has been taking a number of steps over the last couple of years to make our finances completely transparent. As an organization that works on behalf of the community, it only makes sense that the community should have an opportunity to see exactly how their money is being spent. We're fortunate to have a very smart Finance Director, Karen Nathan, who makes sure all our donations are spent in a responsible way that we can all be proud of.

~One of our long-time partners, Youthworks!, featured us on their budding Wordpress blog. Youthworks! is an organization that matches groups who are looking for volunteer opportunities with non-profits who desperately need the help. They've agreed to send us volunteers every Tuesday starting in June. Organizations like Youthworks! are crucial to Bread for the City since they give us volunteers we can depend on and allow me to schedule very far in advance. We also partner with YSOP, One Brick, Greater DC Cares, and a number of other volunteer recruiters to make sure our staff gets the support they need. We couldn't serve so many low-income residents without their help.

~Kathryn Baer's blog, Policy & Poverty, picked up Greg's story about WMATA phasing out paper transfers. I added her to my google reader today, and look forward to reading the other stories she picks up.

~Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post wrote a couple sentences on our ongoing partnership with Dickstein Shapiro. Dickstein gives a great deal of financial support to us every year, but they also do pro bono work through our legal clinic and, when we moved into Anacostia in 2002 they established our legal clinic there. To this day, that office of 6 full-time staff still bears their name. It's hard to express just how much of an impact Dickstein Shapiro has had on Bread for the City and the community at-large, but they were given the National Capital Philanthropy Day's Outstanding Corporate Partner award earlier this year in recognition of all that they do. They certainly deserve it and much more.

~A number of groups donated food during Holiday Helpings to help us feed families in need. One such group was ASEA & The Center, which donated full holiday meals for a whopping 78 families!! A gigantic thanks to ASEA & The Center for such a tremendous outpouring of support. You can view their pictures on flickr.

Slow progress on housing improvement

This story popped up in the Washington Post on Saturday (following up on this great and apparently on-going investigative series on the plight of lower-income housing in DC):

The owners of some of the District's most run-down apartment complexes have made major repairs in recent months, correcting more than 2,300 housing code violations, as D.C. leaders continue to pursue a sweeping lawsuit meant to rid the city of dangerous buildings.

The repairs have come after a months-long crackdown by city leaders, who have fired housing inspectors and strengthened laws to better protect tenants. Attorney General Peter Nickles asked D.C. Superior Court in April to force repairs and impose fines at 13 buildings that had racked up more than 2,800 code violations, with conditions that he said were among the most "egregious" in the city.

Since the lawsuit was introduced, the owners of all 13 buildings have made a series of repairs, Nickles said. Six of the properties were fixed entirely, he said, and have been dropped from the lawsuit.

"We've had a big impact so far," he said.

But housing advocates caution that new violations are not being addressed and that the city is not moving quickly enough against owners slow to make repairs. One example is a building on 10th Place SE, where tenants have been living for years without heat.
...

"Here we are in December, and tenants are still living in the same conditions," said Bread for the City attorney Rebecca Lindhurst, who is assisting tenants on 10th Place.

The bottom line: public scrutiny in media like the Washington Post and the City Paper, intensified by the efforts of advocates, has yielded some progress in some properties. But the progress is splotchy.

Bread for the City's ace housing attorney Rebecca Lindhurst is out on a well-deserved vacation, so we'll have to wait for some additional commentary from her. In the meantime, many thanks to Debbie Cenziper at the WaPo for her tenacious coverage.

Pots and Cutting Boards and Spoons-- Oh My!

Bread for the City's Fit for Fun program pairs primary medical care with nutrition and exercise education. Patients receive regular check-ups in our clinic, while working one-on-one with Sharon (our nutritionist), attending monthly cooking classes, and receiving groceries from our food pantry once monthly.

The program has been around for a few years now, but under Sharon's tutelage, it has experienced significant growth.

So many clients are turning out for our cooking classes that our limited kitchen supplies just aren't cutting it anymore (please pardon the pun). Sharon put together a wish list for kitchen items. If you can fulfill any of these wishes, please contact me! And if you don't have the items to donate yourself, you may make a cash donation online. Please write "Fit for Fun" in the comment box.

Kristin Valentine
202.386.7613

Thank you!

Pots/pans/bakeware
One large pot with cover (7 qt.)
One large sauce pan with cover (5 qt.)
One medium sauce pan with cover (3 qt.)
One extra-large rectangular baking dish with cover (Pyrex style works; cover is preferable so we don’t have to keep aluminum foil on hand.)

Preferably all pots/pans would be stainless, so they last longer and it does not matter which utensils are used by the many people in and out of the kitchen. (Currently, the non-stick and enamel surfaces of our pots and pans render most items unusable.)

Utensils
Flatware: spoons, forks (20 of each)
Serving/cooking utensils: 2 large spoons without slots

Additional
1 large mixing bowl
1 medium mixing bowl
10 soup bowls
2 non-plastic cutting boards
Steel wool should be kept on hand, so all items can be cleaned properly.

Help from all kinds of places.

In case you don't yet have New Year's Eve plans, you should check out the party at Tryst in Adams Morgan: the organizers are donating proceeds to Bread for the City. Woo! For the next few days at least, tickets are $45.

And in the meantime, we also want to give a shout out to the Touchstone Gallery. Half of the proceeds from their exhibit, "Small Works: Small Prices," will be donated to Bread for the City. It's an economy-minded show, featuring affordable art of all kinds. Runs through January 3rd, so swing by and check it out!

Seasons Greetings!

A quick shout out to Baach Robinson & Lewis for their eco-friendly and charitable holiday greeting this year.

Thank you!

A Couple Stories I Missed

Well, it turns out I rounded up too soon. Here's a couple more things of note:

~This Saturday the African-American Holiday Association is having an affordable craft & art festival! They'll be at the Reeves Center (at 14th and U NW) from 11am to 5pm. This is their 25th anniversary celebration, so be prepared for some fun. The AAHA has a video you can watch about the event.

~The Washington Post talks about Bread for the City and our partner, Miriam's Kitchen, in an article on the impending changes to our Metro system. I think Ms. Sun sums up our position quite nicely:

...representatives of Bread for the City and Miriam's Kitchen, two nonprofits that help vulnerable District residents, said many of their clients with mental illnesses would not be able to hold on to a fare card. Homeless shelter residents' possessions are often stolen, they said, and those with mental illnesses may have a hard time using the cards.

~The GWMinute also ran a nice article about the partnership we have with them through our Medical Clinic.

Beyond Bread: All Kinds of Excitement

Happy Holidays to all our readers!  In part to celebrate the holidays (and in part because President-Elect Barack Obama asked us to), Bread for the City will be hosting a health forum on December 30th.  What time?  Who's coming?  I don't know.  Good thing my guy Greg is going to spill all the details a bit later on this very blog.

~Bread for the City made some friends this week!  We're humbled that Tryst has decided donate the proceeds from their New Year's party to us, and grateful for help in such an unexpected and creative way.  Also this week:  DC this Week picked up the equally amazing story that Touchstone Gallery is going to donate proceeds from a December showing of small artwork, The Prince of Petworth asked his readers to consider donating clothes to us, and DCist linked to our ongoing coverage of paper transfers being phased out of the Metro system.  There's an incredibly giving attitude this holiday spirit, and it's one of the many reasons I'm happy to be in DC among people who understand that an economic downturn hurts those at the bottom the worst.

~Given the outpouring of support we've been getting, it comes as no surprise that the Washington Times went to print with a story on how, despite common misconceptions, our community is coming to bat for us.  Though you'll all be thanked more personally, a public thank you to the many, many people who continue to pledge their support.

~Whitman-Walker moved to a new location this week--smaller, but only two blocks away from their old location at 14th and S NW.

~OneWorld ran an interesting piece on their website about the rising number of homeless veterans, and how some in San Francisco are stepping up to help.

American Economy Cartoon Roundup VI

Holiday Portraits: Bread for the City clients and staff

Our good friend Steve Goldenberg came by the office late on Monday for a little holiday photo-shoot with some of our clients and staff. People were pretty psyched at the opportunity to have a professional-grade portrait session. (We'll be ordering prints and getting them to folks right before the holiday.) See all the photos here!

It's tough to pick a favorite, but... aw shucks here goes.

Still time to call for the City to save critical programs

UPDATE: And the group has a name! Email signstatement@some.org to join up with "The Coalition for Community Investment."

So we totally believe that the current fiscal situation is gloomy—for our city, along with basically every local and state gov in the country. But just as all the serious economists are calling for increases in federal spending, local advocates know that now is the time when it’s more important than ever to maintain and even increase public investment in programs that stitch together the very fabric of our community. Right now more than ever we need programs that create housing opportunities, that support the unemployed and underemployed, that brace communities for the increases in social disruption that are virtually inevitable to follow in times of economic disruption.

And we have to act now to make sure our voice is heard as the city government plans its own course of action.

The "Coalition for Community Investment" has drafted a Statement of Principles regarding the fiscal crisis that has already garnered almost 100 signatories from fellow service organizations, businesses, and local groups. (Email signstatement@some.org to join, or for more information.) They’re sending the letter to the Mayor and City Council tomorrow, so we need other parties to join our call today. The CFO will make an announcement about additional budget adjustment on Friday – there is still time in which the community can re-affirm its demand for effective and foresighted public investment.

And yes, that time can be valuable, and our advocacy can be effective. I spoke with SOME’s Joni Podschun about recent advocacy efforts that have protected the bulk of the funding for critical programs like Housing First. Says Joni:

“Last time we learned about the Council's proposal on Friday morning of a holiday weekend – the vote was scheduled for that Monday at 1. But the community and advocates mobilized to delay the cuts, and we were successful in restoring funds for Housing First, the Office of Disability Rights, and the new domestic violence shelter. With a more transparent and collaborative process, our city leaders would be better informed about the effects of their proposals and the views of their constituents.”

Indeed. And with innovative proposals like Councilmember Jim Graham’s parking fee hike, we will be able to weather the economic storms by placing costs and investments in all the right places.

Sign on to the Statement of Principles today – email signstatement@some.org – and pass this around to others who will want to join with us!

Anticipating the loss of bus transfer tickets

Come January 4th, paper transfer tickets will be a thing of the past. To move between Metro and/or bus, all riders will need a SmarTrip card. The move will save WMATA a bit of change -- and as the City Paper reports, it will also tamp down a culture of free-riding enabled by the paper slips.

But for whatever reasons the policy change is going through, and setting aside the problem of free-riding, this policy change is going to have an adverse affect upon thousands of the Metro system's poorest riders who do take legitimate advantage of the paper transfer tickets. It will put a screw to the many people for whom a $1.35 bus ride is not insignificant, and for whom a $5 SmarTrip card would be outright spendy.

Last week, Coalition of Housing and Homeless Organizations sent a letter to WMATA outlining these and other concerns (including the problems that SmarTrip cards will present for persons with disabilities). "The City cannot afford to impose additional obstacles, inadvertent as they may be, to our residents’ obtaining employment, health, mental health and other social services," wrote COHHO.

WMATA responded with a letter that basically reiterated their intention to move right on ahead.

So, assuming that the change in policy does in fact go through, there are a couple of possible solutions that would help minimize the disruption for the most vulnerable passengers. One option would be to create a disposable one way fare card to carry transfers; other metro systems evidently have this in place, and it's a solution that was apparently originally suggested by WMATA itself. However, this would create more ticket-waste and would also entail additional technological cost.

The other more likely option would be to indefinitely extend WMATA's offer (currently, good only through December) for service providers like Bread for the City to purchase SmarTrip cards with the value of a token on them. Given that the expense of a SmarTrip card is significant for our clients, and that the cards themselves will become tempting targets for theft, this is the best way for WMATA to make up for a policy that will surely put many of its riders at a disadvantage.

The public still does have an opportunity to comment on this policy change. The WMATA Board meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 18, 11 am, at 600 5th St. NW (across from the Verizon Center). To make a public comment, you just need to sign up before the start of the meeting. For more information about making public comments, go to this WMATA page.

Two Libraries in Low-income Neighborhoods!

Anyone want to place a bet on which one will be completed first? I handicapped Anacostia at 3-to-1.

Yesterday was the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Anacostia Library. Located on the corner of 18th and Good Hope Road SE (one block away from our SE Center!), the library will be 20,000 square feet and will have 32 computers with internet access. We wrote some time ago on this blog that Ward 7 and 8 have a 50% literacy rate. Not only will the library provide a much-needed source of books and computers (both, in my mind, equally important), it will also provide a community space that non-profits like Bread for the City can potentially use for job trainings, panel discussions, and a host of other important things that require a large, safe space. This is what it'll look like:

And here's what it looks like now:

View Larger Map

You can get more information about the Anacostia Library at And Now, Anacostia or on the DCPL website. The Library is scheduled to open in Spring 2010. Considering how long it has taken to get this far, we're not holding our breath, but I really hope it opens as scheduled.

While we're on the subject of libraries, Shaw is getting a new one as well (a block away from our other Center!). The Watha T. Daniels library had a groundbreaking on December 9th, and has been brewing potential ever since (a nice way of saying there's nothing there). Watha is also slotted for 2010, will also be 20,000 square feet, and will have 30 open access computers. Once again, there's information at DCist, and on the DCPL website, and here's what the new building will look like:

Here's 7th and R NW sporting it's current look:

And from the Metro:

Looks like it's ready! Anyone know when they're going to start construction on either of these two projects?

Taking Stock of your Situation

Lately Bread for the City has been fielding a lot of questions about donations of stock, and by far the most common question is “what is the benefit of donating stock instead of cash?” There actually are some benefits. By donating stock to Bread for the City, you can take something that cost you $2,000 and turn it into a $20,000 gift to our programs, while also receiving significant tax savings. Let's do some math:

You bought 10 shares of Stock X for $2,000 fifteen years ago. The stock is worth more today than it was in 1993 (really, some of them are!), and now you'd like to use that stock to make a $20,000 donation. Assuming you're in the 28% tax bracket, you receive a $5,600 tax deduction right off the bat. To further sweeten the deal, you pay no capital gains taxes on the $18,000 in appreciated value. Right there is another $2,700 in savings. (Grand savings total: $8,300)

In short, you just saved money twice by:
1. Not having to pick up the appreciated stock value as income
2. Receiving a $20,000 tax deduction for making a charitable gift

Not a bad deal.

So, how do you make a stock gift to Bread for the City? Read all about it here or contact me at 202.386.7613 or KValentine@BreadfortheCity.org.

I can tell you how to make a stock gift to Bread for the City. If you need actual financial advice, please contact your personal financial advisor.

Bracing for Budget Cuts: Take Action

Bread for the City, along with our partners at SOME, is calling upon our partners and supporters to urge Mayor Fenty and the City Council to approach the current budgetary crisis in a manner that is open, prudent, and foresighted with regard to the great shared need for support of DC's low-income communities.

Got that? Here's the deal: Next Monday, December 22nd, the city is set to announce still more budget cuts intended to address a still-worsening fiscal situation. The FY2009 budget has already seen cuts that affect a wide range of programs, including parks, public safety, and transportation. And it seems likely that the additional cuts will fall especially hard on low-income families, from which demand is greater than it has been in years for affordable housing, homeless services, health care, and income supports. (See this Washington Post article about the recent freeze on the Home Purchase Assistance Program, from which $11 million has already been siphoned -- about 250 homes' worth -- and another $11 million is targeted by Mayor Fenty's expected proposal.)

We need to act together to ensure a balanced use of our community's resources.

A group of businesses, congregations, nonprofits, and research and policy organizations have crafted a Statement of Principles that encourages the Mayor and City Council to adopt thoughtful, balanced approaches to the budget process. It highlights the following principles:

* Stimulate local economic recovery.
* Avoid cutbacks that unintentionally increase costs.
* Include sensible revenue expansions.
* Operate collaboratively, transparently and inclusively.

See the PDF of the letter here, and email signstatement@some.org to sign on to the letter or to get more information.

Beyond Bread: Neighbors Helping Neighbors

~Some friendly bloggers gave us a leg up on the pile this week--DC Blogs helped raise awareness for a veteran we're trying to help, and Jaimie's List mentioned us as a center in need of food and clothing donations (which we certainly are). A big thanks to both of them!

~We're also getting some help from Azi's and Big Bear--the sleeves on their to-go coffee cups (with which are staff in Shaw are intimately familiar) have information about our Holiday Helpings campaign with a link to donate. If you're in the neighborhood, stop into Azi's or Big Bear to say thanks--we'll see you there!

~Advocates on behalf of our national homeless population sent President-Elect Barack Obama a letter this week asking him to put together a comprehensive plan to end homelessness. Housing Advocacy's got the text of the letter.

~This week I found a blog out of Nashville called Stone Soup Station that I'm going to add to my RSS feed. They ran two great stories this week--one on how laws are increasingly criminalizing homelessness, and another on the spike in elderly residents who have been forced to live on the streets.

~Can you cure diabetes by becoming a vegan? I have no idea, but Medical Bisnow sure thinks it's possible.

American Economy Cartoon Roundup V

Grand Opening for the formerly-on-7th Street Garden

Our friends from the 7th Street Garden have a new location, a new mural, and a date for their Grand Opening.

Come out this Saturday to join in the event: the gardeners say there will be "adult and kid activities," food, music, dirt spreading and mulch, mulch more.

When: Saturday, December 13th 11am-2pm
Where: 2025 3rd St, NW – the Gage-Eckington School

Holiday Helpings: Two weeks til Christmas!

There’s only two weeks left until Christmas. We’re at the tail end of our Holiday Helpings campaign, and we’ve already broken all our own records.

We’d originally planned to give out 10,000 turkeys in the entire course of our campaign (almost the entire months of November and December). But this year, the demand far outpaced our expectations: we provided 10,000 with complete holiday meals even before Thanksgiving.

Many people are surprised that we’ve been able to meet the increased demand, and it does seem remarkable. With food prices increasing and our menu dramatically overhauled in the healthy direction, our food program director Ted Pringle has really pulled off quite a feat. He tells me that, for whatever reason, we had a tough time finding enough cranberry sauce this year – but other than that everything has gone smoothly despite the overruns.

“It helps that I’m asking for food for hungry people,” Ted told me. “That means I have no problem whatsoever getting real aggressive [with food suppliers]."

Ted’s been doing this for years, and even he was surprised by the size of the lines at our food pantries. It’s alarming to think about how many people are hungry this holiday season. But mostly we feel immense gratitude to have been able to meet the need in our community.

And we were only able to do it with the help of thousands of supporters. We even had a lot of love from the local blogosphere! Our big thanks go out to:

• DCist
• The Washingtonian
• 14th and You
• Suburbanette
• JuxtaExposed
• Tree-Huggin Republican

We also had great support from our favorite local coffeeshops, Azi's and the Big Bear Cafe: both cafes are advertising our Holiday Helpings campaign on their coffee cup sleeves. Awesome! Needless to say, for this and other reasons, you should give them your business.

We still have hundreds of clients who will be coming to us to receive meals for Christmas. And Holiday Helpings has now gone far beyond our budget -- by $48,000, to be precise. Nobody around here feels like we should have held back – after all, that money goes straight onto the tables of people who couldn’t otherwise provide for themselves. We want to make sure we can finish this campaign off strong – will you help us make Christmas happen for hundreds of our poorest neighbors?

Update: a veteran in need

Last month, we told you about one of our clients who is in particularly dire need: “Charles,” a Vietnam veteran, is ill and in danger of becoming homeless. In response to the post, quite a few people donated generously to help him out – our deep thanks go to them. With their help, we’ve pushed the deadline for his eviction back; but now we need once again to buy some more time until we can stabilize Charles’ situation for good.

Charles worked his whole life, but several years ago he became very ill and was hospitalized. Upon his release, he returned to work – but he had regular dialysis appointments during the work day that he could not miss. One day—despite the fact that he’d notified his workplace about his appointment—Charles was fired for “walking off the job.” (Of course, he only discovered this on following day, upon returning to the job he’d supposedly walked off of.) Because he was fired for allegedly walking off the job, he is ineligible to receive unemployment benefits.

Charles had to turn to family and his church for support. But that was back in April. His health problems persisted, and he’s now out of other options and behind on rent.

So far, with the help of our donors and Bread for the City’s lawyers, Charles has managed to forestall eviction – but he has had to begun cutting back on essentials like food. We’re enrolling him in our food program, and working to get him placed in supportive housing (he’s currently paying market rates on his long-time home). But we’ll need another five hundred dollars to get him through to the new year in his current place.

Can you help us help Charles keep his home until we can find him a place that he’ll be able to afford from now on? Contact Kristin Valentine at kvalentine[at]breadforthecity[dot]org. Thanks again to all of those who have helped so far.

Beyond Bread: Wrapping Up World AIDS Day

~The newspapers suddenly exploded with stories about HIV/AIDS right around World AIDS Day. The Washington Post ran a convincing argument for universal testing. The Washington Times had a write-off story about the well-known statistic that one in five people with HIV/AIDS don't know they have it. The Washington Blade ran two excellent articles: one on the human face of AIDS, and one on a united appeal by AIDS groups to President-Elect Obama. The Washington Post also ran a pretty concise article on AIDS and black women.

~Almost 30 million Americans are currently on Food Stamps, a spike only matched in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

~DC Fights Back and about 100 protesters gathered at HUD on Dec. 1st to demand housing for over 200 people living with AIDS who are currently on the housing wait-list.

Fighting AIDS with clean needles

One in five cases of HIV/AIDS contamination occurs as a result of intravenous drug use. And it doesn't seem like our whole War on Drugs operation has been terribly successful so far. Needle exchange programs are a hard-nosed strategic effort that work within the realities of drug abuse in order to prevent even more dangerous problems that can result from it. And the programs are remarkably effective.

Research indicates that cities with needle exchange programs saw an 11% decrease in infections-by-syringe as compared to cities without such programs. Moreover, public health experts are virtually unanimous in agreement that the programs neither increase drug usage nor decrease the rates of enrollment in drug treatment programs.

Yet for almost a decade, the federal government rejected such programs – banning the use of federal funding for them. Even after most states had moved ahead to fund needle exchanges on their own, Washington DC was left until very recently without funding for them – even though our city has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the country.

At the start of this year, the ban was finally lifted. (Bread for the City worked alongside other advocates in the successful fight against it.) City funding was freed up for needle exchange programs, and Bread for the City was one of the first recipients.

But it’s worth noting that our needle exchange program was operational for years before the ban on funding was lifted. We did it under additional strain on our budget, when most other organizations weren’t willing or able to pay for it. “We did it because we don’t stick our heads in the sand,” says our deputy director, Jeannine Sanford, “because we do what’s going to save lives. We do what works.”

The end! Well sort of, though there’s an interesting recent twist to the story.

President-elect Barack Obama has pointedly expressed his support for needle exchange programs, but currently placed at the top of his list for a potential Drug Czar appointment is Republican Representative James Ramstad who has, according to the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), voted “to make permanent the federal funding ban on syringe exchange, to ban Washington DC from spending its own locally raised funds on syringe exchange programs in 2000, and against lifting the same DC ban in 2007.”

CHAMP is calling for public opposition to Ramstad’s appointment. And yet, President-elect Obama has plainly stated that policy will be set primarily from his office, rather than his appointments. Ramstad’s inclusion very well may be an encouraging sign of coalition building among once-divergent perspectives, working towards a more coherent and effective drug policy.

See this clip from Rachel Maddow’s show earlier this week for more on this. And as always, stay tuned.

AIDS Epidemic Cartoon Roundup

The HIV/AIDS diet

Inspired by World AIDS Awareness Day (which has grown into AIDS Awareness Week on this blog), I've been looking for new resources about the dietary dimension of life with HIV/AIDS.

From supporting the immune system to coping with side effects from medications, diet should play a key role in managing HIV and AIDS. Also, the body often experiences intense calorie burning when grappling with chronic viral issues, which means that many people who are HIV+ need to eat extra calories to compensate. It is critical to make sure these extra calories count in a good way, that people choose foods that could strengthen the body instead of further tax it.

Below are some helpful links.

• The Lifelong AIDS Alliance features nutritional fact sheets that address specific symptoms (diarrhea, loss of appetite, etc). A little heavy on the nutritional supplements recommendations, but good otherwise.


• This article in The Body discusses how a healthy diet and meds can work well together, and this one offers more detailed advice about foods to eat more of and foods to eat less of.


• This piece at AIDS Meds breaks down the advice into specifics about each food group. Most of the information is spot on.

On this blog, it's AIDS Week

So, yesterday was World AIDS Day, but we'd like to stretch it out a bit. A day is not enough, and neither is a week for that matter, to talk about the complex branches of the AIDS epidemic.

I dropped in to Bread for the City's medical clinic yesterday to speak with our staff about AIDS in our community. As Maggie wrote here, about one in twenty DC residents has HIV/AIDS -- and many of them are low-income residents without sufficient access to medical care.

Despite the high statistics, rough estimates put the proportion of clients with HIV/AIDS here at Bread for the City a bit lower than the average in the District. The word in our clinic is that other community health clinics report the same thing. We couldn't put a finger on the exact reason(s) for this (anyone out there care to share their insight?) -- and limited access to data surely makes it harder to assess the situation -- but the sense around here is that a significant number of DC residents living with HIV/AIDS simply aren't getting proper care of any kind. That's a sobering thought.

Of course, we regularly make referrals for people with HIV/AIDS to seek specialized care at nearby clinics like Whitman-Walker. When it comes to our own clients, we provide services that are at both basic and essential: condoms that are freely available at our front desks, in our medical clinic, food pantry, and intake rooms, a Needle Exchange Program (which is one area where some promising gains have recently been made in addressing AIDS in our community), and regular testing.

In fact, all Bread for the City medical clinic clients get tested for AIDS annually. Dr. Randi, our Medical Clinic Director, tells me that, "regular testing is as much a part of basic primary care as checking blood pressure."

It's a statement that seems both plainly true and less normative than it should be. Consider a recent New York Times editorial about a proposal that could virtually halt the AIDS epidemic in its tracks. The proposal basically amounts to: test everyone every year, and immediately provide treatment to those who test positive. The NYT editorial says that the implications of this "thought experiment" are "breathtaking."

I would have gone with "obvious." It's frustrating to think that such a terrible problem has such a simple solution. But acknowledging the existence of a solution - no matter how vast the scale - is a fine place to start.

(PS: For those interested in more localized information about AIDS in our community, Fight HIV in DC is also a fine place to start.)

World AIDS Day Today

by Maggie Rosenbloom, Case Manager.

This December 1st marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS day. Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, the day is meant to focus our attention on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

It is estimated that 1 in 20 people in DC are infected with HIV/AIDS. African-Americans account for 86% of people living with AIDS in DC. Women too are more disproportionately represented among HIV cases in DC; 93% of women diagnosed with HIV in DC were African-American.

There are a number of events going on in DC to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS:

DC Different Drummer World AIDS Day Concert
Hosted by DC Council Members Jim Graham and David Catania, a fundraiser with DCDD on 12/1/08 at 8 PM at the Harman Center, 610 F St. NW. The concert will benefit Whitman-Walker Clinic, Us Helping Us, and Metro Teen AIDS. The Concert will feature the Capitol Pride Symphonic Band under the direction of Joe Bello and DC Swing!, directed by Chris Raitzyk. DCDD Clarinet Quartet La Reeda Loca will perform prior to the concert at a VIP reception.

Candlelight Vigil With Whitman-Walker
Whitman-Walker Clinic will observe the 20th annual World AIDS Day with a new location for its annual candlelight vigil at Bethlehem Baptist Church at 2458 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE, beginning at 5:30 pm on Monday, Dec. 1. Family and Medical Counseling Services will join Whitman-Walker as a partner in this year's vigil.

Demonstrate for Housing for People Living with AIDS in DC!
DC Fights Back will be organizing a demonstration today outside of the Union Station Metro.

Go Virtual: Attend the World AIDS Day Event in Second Life
Join Second Life for a World AIDS Day Musical Festival on November 30 and on December 1 for a World AIDS Day event that will feature HIV/AIDS presentations and displays, tours, writing workshops, and virtual red ribbons and t-shirts. For more information, visit the Second Life World AIDS Day page .

Get Tested!
Free confidential HIV testing will be available at the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, 1701 14th St., NW, from 9:00 am-7:30 pm; at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE, from 9:00 am-7:30 pm; and at Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia, 5232 Lee Highway in Arlington, from 9:00 am-5:00 pm.

You can also go to http://www.hivtest.org/ enter your zip code and be directed to nearby testing centers. There are close to 50 places that offer confidential HIV testing within a 10 mile radius of the Shaw area. Bread’s medical clinic offers the test to clients. Howard University Hospital, the Carl Vogel Center, the Max Robinson Center and Planned Parenthood are just a few of the organizations that offer HIV testing service in the DC area. Don’t forget to bring a friend.

For more information about organizations focused on HIV go to:
World AIDS Campaign
AIDS.gov
Fight HIV in DC
The World Health Organization