DC needs smart solutions to close the budget gap.

This post is adapted from testimony delivered today by Bread for the City's Advocacy Coordinator, Joni Podschun, to City Council's Committee of the Whole. (You can follow a live discussion of the budget hearing on Twitter under the #gapclosing tag; follow Bread for the City's tweets here.)

The health and prosperity of our city depend on public investments that expand economic opportunity and support families. In these difficult economic times, careful planning is needed to make sure we can continue to meet these goals.

Last week Mayor Adrian Fenty released his long-awaited FY2011 Budget Gap-Closing Proposal. Yesterday, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute published analysis of the proposal, listing cuts to programs like affordable housing, TANF, job training, Access to Justice, Interim Disability Assistance (IDA), mental health services, and LIHEAP utility assistance.

We've blogged about the critical importance of these programs many times.

One of the proposals is to reduce TANF benefits by 20% for households that have been in the program over five years. When I read that proposal, I thought about Tameka, who I first met three years ago when she was receiving training through the Center for Employment Training. At the time, she was just barely making ends meet on $428 a month provided by the TANF program for her and her two boys, even though she was among the 1/3 of TANF recipients fortunate enough to live in subsidized housing. She now has a good job with a career path, after graduating from the program, but she has received TANF for over five years. But what happens if she has an emergency and needs to quit her job? What if her position is eliminated due to the recession? If she needed TANF again, her benefit would be cut by $85. For her and other women like her, 20% of their already meager household income would be gone.

This is just one example of a larger trend to cut services that low-income and middle-income residents depend on. Low-income DC residents in particular face long lines at IMA service centers, harried staff at non-profits, reduced hours at libraries, a growing wait list for IDA (a program designed to tide people over while they are waiting for federal disability benefits), and limited capacity at TANF job readiness vendors, among other things.

According to DCFPI, 39% of the cuts in the gap-closing plan we consider today are to human services programs, even though they only make up 26% of the total budget. And there is just $1 in proposed revenue for every $40 in spending cuts.

The alternative is to ask more of households in the top 5%. These families have suffered the least in the recession, pay a smaller share of their income in combined taxes than middle-income households, and have continued to receive city services largely unchanged. By creating a new tax bracket of 9.5%, an individual earning $300,000 would contribute about $85 a month, only 0.3% of their income. This proposal would generate approximately $75 million in new revenue.

If we are going to ask District residents to take a hit, shouldn’t the $85 a month come from those for whom it will be only 0.3% of their income, not households barely making it on $428 a month, for whom it is one-fifth their total budget? After the new brackets, a household at $300,000 will still have income net of taxes at $24,915 each month.

It is the role of government to provide a basic level of support and to reinforce the positive steps that people are taking to meet their goals. That is more important during an economic downturn than ever. With a limited job market, we should invest in education and intensive hard skills, retooling District residents for the 21st century and ensuring they can compete for jobs. Housing costs are down, the perfect time for the preservation and creation of affordable housing. These are just two examples of costly programs that yield huge benefits down the road.

We need to make smart, targeted investments in the local economic infrastructure, to help our city rebound from the recession. Investments that keep families out of costly emergency and remedial services, that bring dollars into the local economy. Let’s have a conversation about priorities, about what we can build with progressive revenue. What kind of housing do we need to keep our workers in DC? What types of job training should we provide? How can we support entrepreneurship and small businesses that employ DC residents? When DC residents consider what their tax dollars can buy, they will be excited to contribute to a thriving, diverse, healthy city.

In the immediate, we need better choices and bold leadership. Tell the City Council to stop the trend of asking more of those with limited resources, struggling to survive. Create new tax brackets of 1% higher on income above $200,000, to invest in an economic recovery that includes everyone.

Crooked Run Orchard Needs Your Help!

While this blog normally covers issues directly related to the District, we have recently discovered that dear friends of ours in Virginia are in trouble and need our help. Just a quick moment of your time can literally help save a farm!

The Crooked Run Orchard, Glean for the City’s dedicated partner, is being threatened by encroaching development in its town of Purcellville. Just last month, we presented Crooked Run with a 2010 Good Hope Award for its incredible generosity (15,000 pounds of apples donated to Bread for the City in the past two seasons -- 15% of Glean for the City’s total haul). Now, the county is considering plans to forge a highway directly through the heart of Crooked Run, using “eminent domain” to destroy barns, thousands of trees, and a small farmer’s livelihood.

Thanks to the process of “eminent domain”, these plans could easily become a reality whether the owners of Crooked Run like it or not. Not only will the highway divide the farm property in two, it will also completely destroy one of its barns, kill dozens of mature apple trees, and expose the remaining orchard trees to dramatically increased auto emissions. More importantly, it will completely upend the very way of life for proprietor Sam Brown, destroying a farm that’s been family owned and operated for over 200 years.

So what’s the trade off? What's the benefit of the proposed new highway? As it turns out, a mere 2.54% reduction in traffic on Main Street. That’s right, 2.5 fewer cars per 100. Hardly a dent in the current congestion woes, and hardly worth the effort of bulldozing right through this property.

Each year, over 20,000 community members—families, friends, neighbors—enjoy Crooked Run Orchard for all its splendor: apple picking, hay rides, outdoor exploring, education about agriculture and nature. We wish for Crooked Run to be around next year and for years to follow. As such, we strongly urge Purcellville’s Mayor, Bob Lazarro, and Town Council to reconsider the current plans for their proposed Southern Connector Road.

You can help! It only takes a second to sign our petition.

Tacos for Turkeys!

Of all the inspiring support that we've received from the community this holiday season, one effort really takes the taco.

Hungry Samaritan Peter Gartrell is about to pull up a chair in the final round of Tonic's Iron Taco Eating Championship (taking place tomorrow, Tuesday, at the Mount Pleasant location, at 8pm) -- and he is dedicating this competitive eating performance in support of our Holiday Helpings campaign!

That's right: For each taco that Peter puts down, his Tacos for Turkeys drive is asking people to pledge to donate a given amount to our pantry. Peter polished off 15 tacos last time (in just 5 minutes) and says that he intends to best this performance by at least a couple more.

So far, Tacos for Turkeys has raised over $87 in pledges-per-taco. If Tacos for Turkeys can break $100 per taco in the next day, this contest may raise enough money to provide more than 60 low-income families with a complete holiday dinner (a turkey and all the trimmings)! So please jump on board this taco train by making a pledge today.

We imagine that an eyebrow or two might raise at the thought of a competitive eating contest benefiting an organization that fights hunger. But we say to you that Peter didn't create the Iron Taco; he has just come to conquer it. We thank him for considering this novel way to spread awareness of our less fortunate neighbors. Good luck to our voracious friend. See you at the Iron Taco.

Yum! Bread for the City's Cooking Class, Thanksgiving Style!

Thanksgiving: when families come together, gather around the table, and eat a whole lot. It’s a time for thinking about our family and our blessings – and right alongside those things, we should also be thinking about our health.

Last week, our nutrition consultant, Sharon Gruber, hosted a special Thanksgiving cooking class for clients and staff. Sharon asked the group to list their favorite Thanksgiving foods. The list was long, including: turkey wings, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, ham, pie, collard greens, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, cranberry sauce and Buffalo wings. At one point, a long-time cooking class participant, Val Ford, suggested “salad.” The room erupted with some astonishment, but Val held her ground and insisted that salad does have a rightful place at the Thanksgiving table.

Sharon then asked the class to identify those food items that are starches. There was some confusion as to what constitutes a starch, and Sharon explained that starch is a food that breaks down into sugar into our bodies. This includes foods like rice, pasta, and potatoes. Sharon explained that though not all starches are bad, but too much can be detrimental to your health. Starchy foods on our Thanksgiving list included be stuffing, Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, etc.

Sharon advised that, like dinner on any other night, we can find balance on Thanksgiving by adding vegetables into starchy items. Dishes like stuffing can accommodate a lot of vegetables -- like celery, onions, bell peppers and even apples. Like stuffing, potato salad can be made healthier by adding ingredients like parsley, onion, celery, and olive oil and vinegar (instead of using mayonnaise).

Even with desserts, Sharon talked with the group about how sweets like pie can be prepared in a healthier way. Instead of more bread and more starch on the top of the pie, putting nuts or oats can be less starchy.

The class then put what they learned into practice, cooking mashed potatoes and green beans and baking an apple crisp. The mashed potatoes were made with cauliflower mashed together because the vegetable would make it less starchy and it gives it a creamier base. While making the mashed potato with cauliflower, people wondered whether the dish needed butter--but that would add cholesterol to the meal, and the cauliflower replaces the need for butter to give it a creamier base.

Dorothy Corry voiced her opinion, “My main problem is that I try to not use butter for flavor so I’ll just add salt. Is there a replacement for using salt?” Sharon suggested that instead of using salt use garlic and onions. “Think green herbs, the more spice and herbs mean less salt.”

The apple crisp, which was made with oats, apples and cranberries, can be put into the oven just like a pie. At the end we enjoyed these traditional desserts, healthfully prepared, and still delicious. The biggest hit was the greens beans: several clients said that they’d never had vegetables that tasted that good.

Bodacious Birds

We've distributed nearly 4,000 of these bodacious birds to some of DC's lowest income families. Meanwhile, across town, the Obamas will be having the same birds for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. (See this article about how the President donated several Jaindl turkeys last year to Martha's Table.)

They're Jaindl turkeys, and we're told they're the best.

Indeed, when it comes to our clients, only the best will do. We ordered many thousands of these Jaindl turkeys from the Capital Area Food Bank this year, selected for both affordability and healthfulness.

In fact, these turkeys are the only turkeys permitted by the USDA to be labeled "Lite" -- because of a remarkably lean fat content (55% less fat and 25% less calories than your average gobbler).

They've been served at the White House holiday table for three decades. That's some top-notch turkey!

You can make sure more of these fine specimens of holiday delight make it on to holiday tables by making a gift to Holiday Helpings. Thanks for all your help!

A Loan of Hope – The Interim Disability Program

This blog post brought to you by beloved former volunteer corps member, Lucas Sharma.

It is almost Thanksgiving, a time for reflecting with close family and friends. Our reflections center on what we are thankful for, especially as we look on our many blessings over this past year.

One specific District program that is especially important to me is the Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) Program. IDA provides a small income ($270) each month to residents waiting the long months (even years) between their initial disability application and approval from the Social Security Administration. Clients I worked with applying for disability are unable to work, and thus depend on this program to have their basic necessities met. One notable aspect of this program is that the Social Security Administration repays the District government when a client’s social security is approved.

One client of mine I’ve written about before is Mr. S. When he was approved for his disability income after seeking legal representation at Bread for the City, he explained to me how crucial IDA had been to his stabilization. Chronically homeless and suffering from a long litany of impairments ranging from HIV to chronic leg pain to severe depression, IDA provided a “loan of hope” to Mr. S. He was proud to say that he was able to repay that loan, allowing someone else to have hope as they waited for their disability decision.

Another story that sticks with me is Anthony Brown, who was interviewed for Beyond Bread this spring when the City Council made $6 million in cuts to the program.



Our city has already cut more than $120 million from the safety net programs that people like Anthony depend on. Rather than more cuts, let’s ask more of those who have suffered the least in the recession. Right now, DC’s top tax rate (8.5%) starts at $40,000 a year. An increase of one percentage point in the rate for the highest-earning 5% (those with income above $200,000) would bring in at least $65 million in new revenue. It’s a small contribution for high-income households, roughly equal to the price of a large coffee each day, but makes an enormous difference for the quality of life in our city.

If you care about this issue, send an email to Chairman Vince Gray and ask him to take a balanced approach and protect the programs you care about.

As you reflect on what you’re thankful for, take some time to consider what changes you would make in your budget, to ensure our city can invest in an economic recovery that includes everyone. What tax structure would be fair and just? Would you be willing to give up the equivalent of a large coffee a day?

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I am thankful for IDA’s impact on the residents of DC, and for the ways Mr. S, Anthony Brown, and Bread have blessed me this year.

Pitfalls and Potential of DC’s TANF Program

This post brought to you by Patty Anne, a member of Bread's Consumer Advisory Board and resident of Ward 8. Welcome to the blogosphere, Patty Anne!

I joined the TANF program in 1997, just after welfare reform. Last week, I learned about a bill to create a five-year time limit to the program, and it seemed like a good time to share my story. When I was training to become a firefighter and EMT in 1989, I was hit by a car and seriously injured. I worked odd jobs off and on but continued to have health problems. In 1997, I left an abusive relationship when I learned I was pregnant. I went on TANF to provide for my daughter. The year she was born, we became homeless because of a house fire.

In almost every other state, they tried 5-year-limits for TANF back when Clinton was in office. It didn’t work then for the same reason it wouldn’t work now -- they didn’t give people the tools that they needed to go to work. It was a mess. They called it "Welfare to Work," but they didn’t have enough job training sites and they didn’t help people gain skills. They’d be pushing you out there to get a job, when a lot of people don’t know how to work.

They need to teach people to be self-sufficient, how to be successful off of TANF. For a lot of people, their grandmother might have been on TANF, their mother and aunties and cousins might be on TANF – that might be all they know. But have to open them up to options to better and improve themselves. You can’t be telling them to go out there and work without any training. They don’t even know how to work a job, keep a schedule, or even just communicate. People need life skills training, financial budgeting. You have to figure out what skills they’re best at. You have to give them hope, instead of take all their hope away.

They tell you in the program, “If you get a job, you’ll be happy. Your family will be happy. You’ll be wonderful.” They don’t tell you if you get a job they’ll take your Medicaid and your Food Stamps, and if you don’t have a job that has health benefits, you are stuck. They don’t see that.

I joined the Welfare to Work program and got a job. But then I passed out on the job because of my multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia, and my supervisor said I couldn't come back. Eventually, my doctor made sure that I got a medical exception so that I didn’t get sanctioned for not working, but it took me 7 years to get Supplemental Security Income.* I don’t want to be on TANF or SSI. I wish I could have a good job, so I can make good money, so I can take care of my daughter. I don’t want to live in a constant state of trial and tribulation, fighting for my disability benefits, for good housing I can afford, for enough Food Stamps to feed my family.

Give TANF participants the tools they need to survive. Give them a chance to learn new skills and get good jobs. Let’s see what they can do to meet their goals.

For more recommendations for DC's TANF program, see Voices for Change, a report co-authored by Bread's Advocacy Coordinator, Joni Podschun.

*Edited for accuracy.

Drive, drive, drive! Holiday Helpings in high gear.

What a tremendous outpouring of support we've seen from the community this year! More than 50 organizations have committed to organizing a Holiday Helpings drive, and more folks are contacting us daily. That is by far the most that we've ever had!

While we can't thank our supporters enough, we also can't help but wonder: Can we reach 75 partner organizations during Holiday Helpings 2010??

There's less than a week before Thanksgiving, but keep in mind that Holiday Helpings runs all the way through Christmas. We expect almost 5,000 more families to turn to us for support in the coming month -- you can help us help them.

I'm often asked what the best kinds of community drives are. First of all, the best kind of drive is one that everyone can have fun and participate. That said, canned food drives ( a traditional favorite) can sometimes pose more difficulties than organizers would expect. For one, it's hard to transport large amounts of canned goods and other groceries. And organizers also have to keep in mind Bread for the City's new nutrition guidelines, which stipulate what kinds of groceries we are looking to distribute, and which kinds we can't accept for the sake of the health of our clients.

In many ways, a Holiday Helpings cash drive is a more effective option. It's simple, and easy -- people can give by cash and check, or by credit card online. By request, we can even set up an online donation page specifically for your organization's drive - complete with your group's name in the URL. (Check out the page for our corporate partner, Alston+Bird: https://www.breadforthecity.org/alston+bird -- cool, huh?)

Some people assume that a cash gift is somehow a "cop out," not quite the tangible assistance that a can of food represents. But I want to assure you that a cash gift is the most effective way you can help us during this holiday season. Not only will 100% of each dollar go to stocking our food pantry, but (since we're the Capital Area Food Bank's largest client) we can stretch each of those dollars much farther than you can at a traditional grocery store.

So visit our Holiday Helpings page for suggestions, tips, and guidelines (see also our 2010 Holiday Helpings Brochure and Food Drive Kit) or contact me at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.386.7611 today and help make this our most collaborative Holiday Helpings ever.

If you're interested in organizing a Holiday Helpings drive at your workplace or community center, it's not too late! Contact me at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.385.7611. You can also visit www.BreadfortheCity.org/HolidayHelpings for more information.

High Fives to Board President Mark Aron

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's our board president!

Today, at the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ 2010 National Capital Philanthropy Day, Bread for the City is honoring the President of our Board of Directors, Mark Aron.

For all those who won’t be at this event to hear in person why we think Mark is just plain fabulous, let me blog it at you.

Mark is a great friend and tireless advocate of Bread for the City. Just ask anyone who has ever sat next to him on a train, walked their dog past his house, stood in line with him at the grocery store -- you see where I’m going here-- Mark is simply crazy about Bread for the City. He is passionate about our clients, and the work we all do together to help make lives better. This passion is contagious.

Mark’s commitment doesn’t stop with helming our Board. Mark has volunteered in pretty much every one of our programs. He is game for folding shirts, packing grocery bags, planting herbs, or conducting intakes. In fact, he conducts intakes every week at our Southeast Center -- one of a very small core of dedicated volunteers. Intakes are hard work -- meeting our clients at their most vulnerable -- and not everyone can do it. (I should know: I’m an intake quitter. I became overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problems our clients face.) Mark, however, handles this challenge with grace, humility, and calm. He just likes helping people solve problems. It’s amazing.

But Mark doesn’t stop there. Not only do Mark (and his wife Cindy!) give generously to Bread for the City, but they get others to do the same. From foundations, corporations, individuals, and churches -- Mark has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Bread for the City.

And as a development director, I also gotta say that I deeply appreciate how Mark is always the first to give for the “little stuff” -- the staff Christmas party, a bonus, or the extra gift in honor of a birthday or wedding. It’s in all the little stuff that you see how big his heart truly is.

All that and more is why Bread for the City is honoring Mark Aron today at National Capital Philanthropy Day. So, thanks Mark, from the bottom of my heart.

Councilmember Michael Brown visits BFC

Bread for the City welcomed DC Councilmember Michal Brown at our Northwest Center yesterday. While here, he visited our food pantry and helped to pass out some Holiday Helpings meals before taking a tour of our new expansion.



You too can be a part of Holiday Helpings 2010. It's not too late to make a contribution to help us meet our goal of providing 8,000 holiday meals to our friends and neighbors. Support Holiday Helpings today!

They served us. How are we serving them?

In honor of those who have served, I would like to take a minute on the day following Veteran’s Day to recognize the hardships many Veterans face once they return home. Many Veterans are at risk for homelessness. As of the latest count, 14.5% of D.C.’s homeless population in non-family emergency shelter are veterans. We here at Bread for the City seek to understand the issues specific to Veterans, so that we can better direct our efforts in reaching this specific portion of the homeless population.

(Learn more about Sherita's work with veterans in this post.)

You may be wondering what about Veterans makes them more at risk for homelessness.

A 2010 study from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness shows that veterans have high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and sexual trauma, especially for women. Especially high rates are experienced by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, due to repeated deployments. Repeated deployments causes an increased strain in family relations and leads to an increased risk for serious injury. These factors also significantly impact a Veteran’s ability to form trusting relationships once they are back home. Social isolation often puts individuals at higher risk for homelessness. PTSD can contribute to substance abuse problems and relapse. Mental health problems, such as TBI or otherwise, can result in cognitive impairment. Difficulties in social relationships and difficulties in controlling temper or impulses could affect potential for employment and retention of jobs.

There are exciting local and national initiatives under way to support Veterans, such as the recent news that 405 veterans have been placed in Permanent Supportive Housing in the last year and the expansion of federal funding for services for homeless families.

What we want is more success stories like Mr. Klink, Veteran of Vietnam who suffers from PTSD. He worked with Sherita Evans a year ago and had this to say when we interviewed him for the blog:

"Sherita assisted me in getting into the place where I’m established now. When I ended up on the streets of DC, a case manager with the homeless division suggested that I could get specific help at Bread for the City. I was tired of jumping in and out of shelters. Sherita directed me to the Vet Center at Chesapeake House. And even though I didn’t meet all the criteria—I didn’t have 60 days clean—I was able to talk to the people and they were ready to give me a stable, sober environment. Today I have six months clean time and my own home."

We salute our veterans for their service to our country and we hope that we can serve them in their hardships in the honorable manner they once served our country.

Walkathon Hard!

With winter on its way, the "Bread for the City Boutique" is busy getting people into warm clothes. (We gave away almost 150,000 articles of donated clothing last year and are on track to exceed that this year!)

Next week, Bread for the City Grant Writer Ryan Hill will get busy getting out of his clothes.

Ryan is preparing to walk in the Help the Homeless Walkathon on November 20, a fundraiser for which he can choose from one of one of dozens of local organizations that serve homeless individuals. Ryan has selected Bread for the City (of course) as the beneficiary of his walkathon, and we’re excited not just because donations to his personal page will help us do our work; they’ll also result in quite a spectacle. For each donation received in his name, Ryan is volunteering to walk in progressively less clothing. (To an extent -- this is a family-friendly event.)

As of this writing, he’ll be sans hat and scarf. We’re only $30 away from getting him to remove a glove. $300 more and he’ll literally give Bread the shirt off his back. We should note that the average temperature for November 20 in Washington, DC is a chilly 47 degrees, and that it will likely be colder when the walk starts at 9:00am.

Ryan’s not the only one walking for Bread for the City. We’re always joined by a rowdy crowd including staff, volunteers, board members, family members and sundry admirers. Speaking of which, you can donate to me here! My parents came last year and had so much fun they signed up months ago for this year’s walk.

If you’d like to sponsor one of our clients to walk (a great way to cross-promote our healthy lifestyle initiatives!) contact Nathan LaBorie at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org. There’s also a “virtual walker” option for those who live far away or who’d prefer to virtually walkathon in the comfort of their own homes. But if you can make it, join us by signing up at the Walkathon site.

People's District: Sherita on Putting the Neighbor Back in the Neighborhood

This week, in promotion of our Holiday Helpings campaign, the People's District published five stories told by people from Bread for the City's community. Today's is a familiar voice to this blog: Bread for the City community resources coordinator and all-around superstar Sherita Evans. Read Sherita's story below:

"I think that we did our children a great disservice when we took the neighbor out of neighborhood. Neighborhood should mean something. To me, it means that we take care of each other. I think that the overwhelming needs in places like SE are why our communities have broken down. We all want to be good people and give back, but what happens when all of your kids and grandkids are in need. Then, your nieces and nephews are in need, too. And, then there is your neighbor in need. All of the need becomes overwhelming and you just focus on yourself.

“Working for Bread, I have come to learn that the same thing that broke down the neighborhood is what can bring us back together. We are all in need, but we can learn to help each other and help ourselves block-by-block. We know that problems in this city are never limited to just one block. One block’s problems can spread to another block and then another, and soon the whole city feels it. People need to recognize that, or at least think about how poverty in my neighborhood in SE impacts those who live uptown.

“I live in this community and see people I went to school with at the supermarket not able to pay for their groceries. I used to work in telecommunications for seven years and had to write-up my employees for work issues that turned out to be the result of lack of affordable child care or health care. Come on, these are basic human rights. No one should be allowed to starve or get in trouble at work because they are too poor to have someone take care of their kids.

“I wanted to work to change these things, so I came to Bread as a volunteer and now work in a dual role as the intake and community resources coordinator. When people come in, I sit with them and tell them about the resources available to them. I help them get social services. I tell them that while Whole Foods or Harris Teeter may not advertise accepting food stamps, you can still go there and shop like everyone else.

“The other part of what I do is going out into the community to let people know about Bread. You would be surprised how many people I meet who think that all we do is literally give bread out to the city. Other people may think that we only do legal work in NW. I tell them that we pride ourselves on being a non-traditional service provider across this city.

“Working here, I see how the lines of poverty have changed. It is no longer only the traditional African-American family coming in for help. Now, I see a real diversity of people coming through our doors. Everyone is in need of help. Everyone has a cousin or aunt or grandma in need. I also deal with a lot of veterans. I am not talking about Vietnam or Korea, but Iraq. If you are an E Class 1, your pay was never meant to support you and a family of four. I work to help those families get services.

“I have had a lot of jobs, but this is the only one that gives me instant gratification. You know that job that everyone seeks out of college, the one where you are going to make a difference and make an imprint in the world, I get to do that every day. A mother will come in and say, ‘I just paid my rent and I can’t feed my children. How am I going to feed my babies?’ If I can help her with food, she will be able to give her children the best part of her. It is a wonderful feeling to be a little part of that.

“So, if we really want to end this, let’s be neighborly again all of the time. Let’s not just wait for the holidays to help. I want someone to be neighborly in March when all of the Holiday Helpings are long gone. If you don’t have money, teach someone a skill or lead by example. Stop reading about the statistics in the Washington Post and hearing what they say in City Council and come and do something about it.”

Many thanks to People's District for this great series!. Celebrate this holiday season with us by making a gift to Holiday Helpings today! Just $29 will provide a healthful, plentiful holiday meal to a family of four.

People's District at Bread for the City: Tony's story

This week, in promotion of our Holiday Helpings campaign, the People's District is publishing five stories told by people from Bread for the City's community.

Check out yesterday's feature of our Executive Director, George A. Jones.

And read below for a story from Tony, our Southeast Center food pantry coordinator!

“I think a lot about how my life would have been different had I had never come back to Washington. I was born in the area, but am a Naval dependent and traveled all over the states as a child. I did most of my schooling in Massachusetts and Maine, and life was just so peaceful and serene. We lived in a beautiful community with parks and trees and kids playing outside.

“Everyone there supported each other. Didn’t matter what you did, you could get your first babysitting job or win a football game, and the whole community would know and celebrate your accomplishments. It was the only neighborhood that I had ever lived in where you could lose your wallet and someone would return it with every dollar bill in it. It was a great time of life for me.

“When I was ten, my parents divorced and I came with my Mom back to D.C. My family goes back in this city to the 1940’s and we were living over by the Navy Yard. I had spent a lot of time around here growing up, so I knew kids in the community. Still, it was hard for me. First thing I did was to try and lose that New England accent. I tried and tried, but couldn’t seem to get rid of that thing fast enough. I started going to school here, but what people were learning here in the 7th grade, we learned in the 4th. Living in this community, I learned about the difficulties and all of the pain here from things like poverty and violence and drugs. There are a lot of good memories, but I also saw a lot of really bad things.

“As people do in the neighborhood, I started to get into little bits of trouble here-and-there and fell in to peer pressure. I even went through incarceration. I got locked up the first time for being nosy. I saw some of my friends getting arrested, so I went down to see what was happening. Turns out, I was wearing the same outfit as one of the guys who committed the crime and they locked me up for two and a half years. I fought it and had witnesses there supporting me, but it didn’t matter. I went in to the system angry and came out of jail with a vengeance. I hated the government for putting a mark on me for something I had nothing to do with. When I got out, someone tried to rob me and I fought back. Can you believe it, the cops came and arrested me for it. I just lost it. I felt like the world was picking on me and I had the worst luck. After that, I just gave up on myself and turned away from all of the good principles I learned and let the hatred take over. I had no respect for the law and wasn’t myself for a while.

“After some time, I saw that nothing was going to change for me living this way. The epidemics kept rolling through the neighborhood, but they were just getting more dangerous. We started with grass and then they brought in the chemicals like acid and powder cocaine. Guns and violence took over and I saw people kill themselves for nothing. I started thinking about Maine and just wanted to go back to those days. I was on a pre-set path to go to college and be somebody. At the time, I didn’t even have a degree and stopped caring about everything.

“I knew there was a better way to live, so I started to change my ways. I wanted to get out of the cesspool, but I still had issues with the government and knew that they couldn’t help me, so I decided to do it by myself. I started doing handy work for the old people around the neighborhood. When there was a rat infestation in our community, I became the pest control. I would wash cars, mow lawns, fix houses, and do whatever you needed. People used to call me the little entrepreneur. I also started to work as a counselor, to help the teenagers and people struggling with addiction in my community.

“About seven years ago, I was blessed to get a job at Bread for the City. Now, I work as the food program coordinator and distribute food to people in need. Because I spend my days with people who are struggling, like I struggled, I still get to work as a counselor. This place opened me up to realizing my potential. I am still in the process of getting better and wanting to grow, but I now have people who come to me looking for advice and direction. It is elating to see someone make a breakthrough with your help. I thank God that I went through what I went through and found Bread, so that I could free my mind and give back to my community.”


Many thanks to the People's District. Celebrate this holiday season with us by making a gift to Holiday Helpings today! Just $29 will provide a healthful, plentiful holiday meal to a family of four.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

In my conversations with people trying to make ends meet with public benefits like Food Stamps and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), I often hear the old saying, “One step forward and two steps back.” There are a lot of reasons why using the safety net can feel that way. One is that people spend time in transit between different service providers, only to wait in long lines for assistance, as you saw in our post last week about utility assistance. Another comes from eligibility requirements that suddenly remove people from programs as their income increases. Imagine making another 50 cents an hour and suddenly losing your health insurance and having to pay out of pocket. There are also programs that aren’t meeting the goals and needs of participants.

This month, the City Council is entertaining two bills that would reform the District’s TANF program. TANF is the primary safety net for single mothers who have exhausted all other means of support. It can also be a gateway to education, job training, affordable child care, substance abuse treatment, and health care. One of the two bills would take our city a step forward, and one would take us way, way back -- to 1996, the year of Welfare Reform.

The TANF Educational Opportunities and Accountability Act of 2010, introduced by Councilmembers Tommy Wells (Ward 6) and Michael Brown (At-Large), would accomplish a few things we’ve blogged about here at Beyond Bread:
- Expand the range of job training and education services that TANF recipients can utilize,
- Assess each recipient’s barriers to work, interests, and goals; and make referrals to both support services and meaningful job training and education opportunities, and
- Require DC’s Income Maintenance Administration to track both referrals to the above programs and outcome measures such as employment and income at 12 months after leaving TANF.

These changes would put TANF recipients on the right path to meeting their goals for employment.

And here’s how we would backslide: the District of Columbia Public Assistance Amendment Act, introduced by Councilmembers Marion Barry (Ward 8) and Yvette Alexander (Ward 7). If passed, this legislation would limit TANF recipients to 60 months (5 years) of TANF benefits. Even worse, the current language would make families ineligible for all public benefits - no Medicaid, no child care, no food stamps, no homeless shelter.

Research has shown that these harsh tactics are not effective at encouraging work. They are likely to result in higher rates of child poverty, with many families disconnected from any form of support. With our progressive programs and policies, DC has mostly bucked the national trend that’s reduced the number of eligible families served by TANF from 84 to 40%. That’s right: Nationally, sixty percent of families in deep poverty who could be on the program are not.

Our city has chosen not to go down this path for good reason. These harmful policies harm families, take dollars out of the local economy, and create costs in other parts of the city’s budget such as child welfare, homeless services, and education.

The timing of this bill is disturbing. It couldn’t come at a worse time. Job opportunities have yet to rebound from the recession and the city is on the cusp of meaningful reforms.

We encourage Councilmembers Alexander and Barry to take the long view on helping their constituents. What programs and policies can help people be ready to respond to the return of the recession, poised to take advantage of sustainable jobs connected to a career path? And, in the meantime while they are still on the program, what supports do they need to maintain their housing and provide for their children?

Let’s consider how we can invest in these families, so our whole city can take steps forward together.

Want to get involved?
- Email Monica Bell (mbell@legalaiddc.org) to sign your organization on to this letter.
- Contact your Councilmembers to let them know your views on these two pieces of legislation. Tell them: “Vote yes on Bill 18-1007 and no on Bill 18-1061.”
- Testify at the hearing on the Barry/Alexander bill -- November 15 at 11:00 a.m. at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Email Vivian McCarter (vmccarter@dccouncil.us) to sign up to testify.

People's District: Dr. Randi on Finding Balance

This is the second installment in a weeklong series by one of our favorite blogs, the People's District, an oral history project featuring the people of Washington DC. This week, the People's District is publishing five stories of people from Bread for the City's community, in promotion of our Holiday Helpings campaign. Many thanks to Danny Harris for this series.

Today's story comes from our Dr. Randi!

“For me, medicine has always been a balance between helping people stay healthy and helping others manage chronic disease. I feel lucky that I have the education, skills and knowledge, and I have always wanted to help people who didn’t have those opportunities. After I did my training at Ohio State and my residency at Northwestern, I followed my husband to D.C. and did a fellowship at George Washington. I always knew that I wanted to be at a community clinic, and found Bread for the City through a woman named Eve Bargmann at GW. She brought residents here once a week and convinced me to come along one day. When I came with her, I realized that this was exactly the kind of place I wanted to work at.

“At that time, the city had a hiring freeze, so I wasn’t sure that working in a community clinic was even an option after my fellowship. While there was so much need, no one had any money and these places were struggling. When I finished my fellowship at GW, I asked the staff at Bread where should I apply for work. I knew they had a shoestring budget and probably couldn’t hire me, but thought they might have some ideas. Instead, they asked me how much I would need to make and if I could work part-time. This was back in 1991.

“One of my favorite stories that I like to tell is that they wanted me to make a two year commitment when I first took the job. My whole life had been committed between school, medical school, residency, and fellowship. I didn’t want any more commitment because I didn’t really like D.C. and wanted to be free to leave when I wanted. Well, as you can see, 19 years later, I am still here, and I still love what I do.

“Working here has made me a part of this community. I love walking here from the subway and seeing all of my clients on the street. I think that it is very meaningful to people that I am still here after 19 years and I didn’t give up on them. People constantly say to me, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that you are still here!’ For me, I stay because I love seeing patients. The ability to help people everyday makes all of this worthwhile to me. And working with the students and volunteers helps them put a face on poverty and to the issues that they read about every day.

“The health care that I do here involves a lot of time educating patients on their medical and nutritional choices in a non-judgmental way. It is up to the patient whether they take medicine or not, or if they eat healthy or not, but I want to be supportive and make sure that people have the information they need to make their own decisions. Many people here eat the foods that are easily available, even if it is unhealthy. I also think there is an eating disorder that comes with the stress of poverty, feeding your emotions. When people are stressed and feel like nothing is going their way, they look to things they can control, like eating. You may be poor, but you can still eat a cheeseburger and french fries when you want. Because of these dietary issues, I see lots of cases of depression, hypertension, arthritis, and diabetes with my clients.

“Some of my clients are very concrete. You will tell a diabetic that they should not be eating waffles with syrup and butter every morning. They will come back and say, ‘I didn’t have waffles today because I switched to pancakes with syrup and butter.’ Many of them don’t make the connection that they are the same thing. I think that people are eager to learn though, but making behavior changes remains difficult, especially if people grew up with poor eating habits.

“At Bread for the City, we have been working to make proper nutrition an important part of our work. Until a few years ago, we would host food drives and give out anything that people gave us. Even if we received donations of candy and cookies, we would use that to supplement the food bags. After some time and a lot of conversation, we realized that we needed to model good behavior and pass out food that was healthy and made sense. We now have a nutrition consultant on staff to help advise the food program, and are giving out fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms. While we have made progress in terms of our work and the food we pass out, it is always amazing to me how much work remains to be done."

Support that work by making a gift to Holiday Helpings today! Just $29 will provide a healthful, plentiful holiday meal to a family of four.

The People's District at Bread for the City

We're pleased to announce that one of our favorite blogs, the People's District, is hosting a week-long special series in promotion of our Holiday Helpings campaign. People’s District will feature five stories on the people affected by and fighting against hunger and poverty in D.C.

Today’s story comes from Ruby, one of our clients. Thanks for sharing, Ruby!

“My parents were share croppers in South Carolina. They moved us up to D.C. when I was just a child to find a better life. Thing is that when we all got up here, my Momma got a job cleaning houses in New York. My grandmother raised me over by where the Convention Center is now, and my Momma would come home on holidays. It wasn’t easy, but I appreciate the sacrifice that she made for me.

"When I was working, I never had to go with no food, so it scared me to see myself and my babies not having enough to eat.

"Back then, life was good and easy, you know what I am saying. Going to the movies wasn’t nothing but nine cents and I would collect soda bottles to have enough money to see the films. I remember when the movies went up to ten cents and I was all mad because it was too darn expensive. That will tell you how old I am, even though you probably think that I am still young and beautiful.

"When I had to start working, I took a job at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and stayed until I retired on September 30, 1993. I did everything there, and I mean everything. I was an information receptionist, so I was the first person you saw in the morning and the last person you saw at night. I moved to medical maintenance, and then left there to work in the red building where they do the experiments with the animals. You know them animal people still get upset when I tell them what I did, but we needed the animals to help cure diseases. I saw a lot of people get help because of those animals.

"After I retired, I was looking forward to sitting back and enjoying life with my babies and grandbabies. But, my aunt got sick, so I left D.C and moved to Massachusetts to take care of her. When I came back in 1995, things were hard on me because I had to take care of all of my grandbabies, too. I had three kids, but one of them passed in 2004. For a lot of reasons, I had to take care of all of their kids. I did it because I had to, but it was supposed to be my retirement. I am now raising my last granbaby, and then I hope I can relax because I am 68 and tired.

"When I realized that I needed help feeding all of these extra mouths, I first came to Bread for the City in 1995. I needed food and milk for the kids and quilts in the winter time and didn’t know where else to go. On my small pension, I couldn’t afford to buy stuff that could support all of us. Because I was from the neighborhood, I knew about Bread. I wasn’t ashamed or nothing to ask for help because when it is about your babies, ain’t no one who is too proud to beg to put food on the table. When I was working, I never had to go with no food, so it scared me to see myself and my babies not having enough to eat.

"I thank Bread for helping me to improve my situation. They gave me the things that I needed when my kids were cold and hungry. I tell you, it’s a blessing. Because I see how they helped me, I try and help others. I volunteer at the National Capital Area Food Bank, and help at my church. See, I don’t only feed my family, but I try and feed many, many families with the assistance I receive. With my holiday helpings, I am going to make a big meal and share it with the other families in need. You best believe that.”

You can help us be there for thousands of families like Ruby's. Give today to Holiday Helpings. Just $29 provides for a family of four. Make a donation here, and to learn more about operating a food or cash drive in your workplace or community group, contact Nathan LaBorie at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.386.7611.

Meanwhile, check back with the People's District each day this week!

A Wild Goose Chase for Utility Assistance

One rainy, cold Thursday morning this October, a young man came into our Northwest Center during our walk-in hours, a utility notice in hand. It stated that his power would be cut off that evening if he was not able to pay. This man had already called or visited all of the other agencies that receive funding to provide utility assistance. He ended up in front of me, soaked and desperate for help.

Most people in his situation get assistance through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), designed to both assist individuals with a shut-off notice and help low-income people budget for their utility costs throughout the coldest months.

On September 3, the District Department of the Environment's Energy Office hosted a Joint Utility Discount Day at the Convention Center. Lines wrapped around the block with people hoping to finally receive energy assistance. In total, 8,000 D.C. residents signed up.

And what if you did not apply for energy assistance on September 3rd? The Energy Office announced that it would open on November 1st for emergency walk-ins. However, on November 1, Fox 5 reported that “hundreds” of people stood outside the Energy Office.

In this case, you could only get assistance if you had a disconnection notice in hand. The District Department of the Environment's website tells people who need assistance and are not currently facing service disconnection to call 311, the city-wide call center, for an assistance appointment.

As of today, the next available appointment is in April. April is a long and dreary winter away from today.

The Social Services Department here at Bread for the City is consistently returning phone calls and meeting with clients that are on the verge of being disconnected, with very few resources to protect them and their family from living without utilities this winter. We see this as a most pressing issue. In our Northwest Center, my colleagues and I fielded 126 phone calls this September and October, before the most high-cost winter months. This is an increase of 34% since last year.

The city's budget for energy assistance in fiscal year 2011 (which just started October 1) is $17 million in local and federal funds -- well below the pre-recession fiscal year 2008 level of $21.9 million. Back then, LIHEAP helped subsidize exorbitant energy expenses, and acted almost as a form of rent supplement. Now, the program is only helping people who are already under threat of disconnection -- and even those people have little help of preventing a shut-off unless they can bargain with the utility companies to hold off until April.

The young man I met with was incredibly angry at the wild goose chase he had been sent on in search of energy assistance. The transportation cost alone to pay for such a seemingly futile journey would make that week’s budget particularly tight. Thousands of people like him face the very real possibility that they will not be able to pay their energy bill every month, which in turn makes it nearly impossible to focus on more long-term goals. The only option this young man had was to return home to a very dark and cold apartment.

Big thanks to Kate Sims for authoring this post.

Video tour of our expanded Northwest Center!

Let's take a break from our exciting Holiday Helpings campaign, and have a sneak peak next door at the expanded Northwest Center. It's scheduled to be open by the end of the month!

Check out this video tour with our Executive Director, George Jones, below:

Here's a rendering of the front facade of the center:



We look forward to the day (soon!) where we can use an actual image instead of a graphic! In the meantime, see some more photos of the expansion in progress here in our Flickr feed.

Getting Better All the Time

On September 23rd, Bread for the City started implementing our Client Choice model in our Northwest Food Pantry, based on its great success in our Southeast Center.

I’m pleased to report that Northwest client choice is running smoothly, thanks to the efforts of staff and volunteers and the willingness of clients to try something new. Gone, now, are the days of prepackaged grocery bags, repetitive meals and wasted food! Instead, our pantry has a spiffy, spacious new layout that’s more like a grocery store than a warehouse.

It’s a pretty major change that pivots away from the way our food pantry has worked for decades—and it was undertaken gradually, methodically, and to widespread satisfaction. Feedback tells us that this new system is favored over our old system by clients, volunteers, and staff!

All part of the plan. Specifically, the plan for Quality Improvement. Quality Improvement (QI) is a specific organizational development model that we’ve adopted at Bread for the City in order to assess and improve our own services. The basic idea of QI is that we can improve our services by making slight changes, tracking measurable data that reveals the effect of that small change, and then continuing to tweak and assess accordingly.

For example, in the food pantry, we’ve been tracking “cycle time”, or how long it takes one client to enter the pantry, get processed in our computer system, and go through the pantry to pick out their food. Cycle time before client choice would hover between 4 and 5 minutes.

As you can see in the graph below, our “cycle times” in the the Southeast food pantry shot up when we first implemented Client Choice, but they consistently improved thereafter, to the point where it was just as fast as it was before Client Choice -- even faster!

We had a few hiccups that taught us useful information, like that the cycle time depends heavily on volunteers. Using the QI method, we determined that if we don’t have enough volunteers on any given day, the cycle time shoots up (like it did in early April) -- but as our volunteers learn the new system over time, cycle time gradually decreases.

Once our staff and volunteers knew the best ways to run the system, it was easy for them to help transfer the model to our Northwest center. We’ve been running client choice in NW for almost a month, and cycle time started off at and has hovered around 5 minutes.

This is just one of the QI initiatives that Bread for the City has taken on. We’ve also used QI to improve both staff and client use of our phone system, wait-time for our medical clinic patients, and ways that our staff shares information. (Special shout-out here goes to BFC's Special Projects Manager Julia Eddy, our Super QI Enfabulousinator.)

Bread for the City: good work is good, better work is even better!

A great start for Holiday Helpings

Yesterday was our Holiday Helpings kickoff! We provided nearly 200 families with complete holiday meals -- a turkey and all the trimmings. And those were just the early birds. We expect more than 8,000 more families will turn to us in the coming months.

See video of a visit from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton here. And check out this great photo gallery of the morning, shot by Friend of Bread Steve Goldenberg:

With all this talk about Holiday Helpings, you may be asking, "how can I help?" Well, first and foremost, you can give generously! (Just $29 provides Holiday Helpings to a family of four.)

Also, our volunteer coordinator, Erin Garnaas-Holmes, reminds us that we need volunteers! We need helping hands to pack up and distribute a lot of 8,000 turkey dinners. Says Erin: "Yep, our volunteers are as busy as it gets these days, and they will be all the way through Christmas."

Anyone can help with this effort. Specifically, Bread for the City will need 3-5 volunteers every afternoon from 1:00pm-3:00pm, Monday through Thursday through December 23, in both of our pantries, located at 1525 7th Street NW and 1640 Good Hope Road SE. (Please keep in mind that we are open only during business hours, and operate on the Federal Holiday calendar, so we do not have any volunteer opportunities during the evening, weekends, or holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas.)

You can view the days on which we still need volunteers here. To sign up for open slots, please email Erin and specify the days you'd like to come.

Thank you for your support!

Holiday Helpings Kickoff with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton

The first Monday of November is always one of Bread for the City's busiest days of the year. Bright and early, people line up down the block to receive the very first of our Holiday Helpings packages, including a turkey and all the trimmings.

This year's Holiday Helpings kickoff was a special treat, however, when we were joined by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. After passing out some turkeys and snapping some pictures with folks, Congresswoman Norton and Bread for the City Executive Director George Jones took a tour of our new Northwest Center.

Check out video with commentary from Congresswoman Norton below:

Congresswoman Norton has been incredibly supportive of Bread for the City's expansion. She spoke at our groundbreaking, and has even helped us seek Federal funding to build a dental clinic in our new center. We thank her for joining us to kickoff this holiday season, and can't wait to show her the new building when it's actually got people in it!

You can join Congresswoman Norton in celebrating the start of this holiday season by making a gift to Holiday Helpings today. Those plentiful turkey dinners cost just $29 for a family of four -- how many families can you help us bring Holiday Helpings to this year?