You Couldn’t Be Stopped by a Hurricane

Food & Friends has weathered many storms over 24 years. Blizzards, hurricanes, we’ve seen it all. This week we continued the proud tradition of caring for our clients despite dramatically challenging conditions.

On Monday, we delivered more than 6,000 complete meals, double the usual delivery, covering more than 5,300 square miles of Greater Washington.

I would like to thank our volunteers. More than 100 volunteers responded to our urgent request for delivery drivers. These great people especially are the heart of Food & Friends. Time and time again, we say, “We couldn't do this without our volunteers.” Absolute proof of this was demonstrated this week as volunteers, experienced and brand new, set aside personal considerations to care for their neighbors. That is quite a message of compassion.

On Sunday evening, we activated an emergency plan designed in advance of the storm to ensure that both Monday and Tuesday’s food was delivered by 2:30pm on Monday. Whatever our usual work, everyone became a member of the kitchen or delivery team. Consequently, we were able to keep volunteers and staff at home on Tuesday with no loss of service to our clients. I might add that we were also prepared to deal with an extended power loss had this occurred.

Today, we've returned to normal operations and will provide more than 3,000 meals to our clients. Just another day at the office.

But here’s the thing. This isn't the last bad weather that we’ll see this year or in early 2013. We’ll need you again during extreme weather as well as every day. I know that you’ll be there and I thank you in advance for answering our call.

With sincere appreciation,

Craig Shniderman
Executive Director

Craig Shniderman has led Food & Friends as the Executive Director since April 1995. He is a native of the Washington area and has lived and worked in Greater Washington for almost his entire career.

Hurricane Sandy Won't Stop Us!

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE VOLUNTEERS AND STAFF THAT RESPONDED TO OUR URGENT CALL FOR LAST-MINUTE VOLUNTEERS.

WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!

URGENT Need for Delivery Drivers by 10:30am Today

We have an URGENT NEED for delivery drivers today so that we may deliver meals in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

If you have a car and are willing to help, please call Don Pitz at (202) 841-5347. We need help beginning at 10:30am and need to have all meals out the door by 12noon.

Keeping our promise and delivering meals rain or shine.

As thousands are making arrangements and preparing for Hurricane Sandy, we are ramping up our efforts to ensure that our clients are taken care of through the storm. Today, we need to deliver more than 6,000 meals to our neighbors in need. For them, this storm is more challenging than for the rest of us.

Everyday you make it possible for us to fulfill a promise to thousands in the region; that we are here for them. Today is no different and we need your help to keep that promise.

Twitter
@foodandfriends.org | #sandywontstopus

Cooking Class Introduces New Skills and New Food

Making the most of our meals is what the past two cooking classes have been about. Tips included planning meals ahead of time, creating a specific grocery list, using the same food item for several meals and label reading. This time label reading focused on comparing unit prices to determine the most affordable food cost when purchasing fresh, frozen and canned groceries.

Cooking class participants tried jicama for the first time.

In keeping meals affordable, participants learned how to cut a whole chicken to use the meat for individual chicken pot pies and the bones combined with leftover fresh vegetable scraps to make chicken broth, which was later used to make barley lentil soup. One participant commented, “The chicken pot pie was so good with sweet potatoes in it…I ate all of it!” Sweet potatoes were a key ingredient in another recipe –homemade Cajun sweet potato fries.

In addition to learning something new at each cooking class, our motto is for participants to try something new, whether it’s a recipe, cooking method or new food. This week’s new food was jicama, a root vegetable native to Mexico, Central and South America.

This was the first time I had ever tried jicama as well!

While jicama can be steamed, baked, boiled or fried, we decided to create citrus spiked jicama and carrot slaw, keeping the vegetable’s crunchy texture and adding a sweet, fruity taste. Participants enjoyed trying this new food. As a class we brainstormed how to incorporate this food into different recipes. Although jicama is on the pricier end for a vegetable, when money is saved through meal planning and budgeting, it can be used to purchase a few new and expensive ingredients.

Participants will learn more on how to make the most efficient use of their time and money at the grocery store during next week’s grocery store tour at the Giant in Columbia Heights.

Brittany Lawrance RD, LDN, Community Dietitian

Brittany is a registered dietitian and has been with Food & Friends since October 2012. Her previous experience was working as a clinical dietitian on the pediatric hematology and oncology unit at Children’s National Medical Center. Brittany completed her dietetic internship in Baltimore, Maryland through Sodexo-Mid Atlantic and is a graduate of Bluffton University in Ohio. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis and softball, making crafts, and has a new found love for leading cooking class. Learn more about Food & Friends' nutrition services.

Do Good. Feel Good. Buy Pies!

Halloween candy in the front of every grocery store. Weekend pumpkin patch or apple picking outings. Red, yellow, and orange leaves falling from trees on the Mall. In the blink of an eye, DC transitioned from summer to fall while our busy schedules kept their pace. Soon, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Instead of making a last minute stop at the store for hostess gifts, Food & Friends would like to invite you to buy one of our delicious pies to share at your holiday meal.

Through November 15th, Food & Friends is peddling pies to help out our neighbors in DC as part of our sixth annual Slice of Life fundraiser. Your purchase will help to deliver nutritious meals to people suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer or other serious illnesses.

Visit www.foodandfriends.org/pie to find a directory of pie sellers, sign up to help sell pies or purchase online. Pre-purchased pies can be picked up on Tuesday, November 20th at Food & Friends or 28 convenient CVS/pharmacy locations through the region. We are offering four delicious flavors: Spiced Pumpkin Pie, Homemade Apple Pie, Nutty Pecan Pie, and US Airways Almond Amaretto Brownie.

Give a pie as a gift or have a slice after a busy day at work. Your contributions will go a long way in our efforts to feed DC metro residents. And remember: calories don’t count if it’s for charity.

Why We Sell Pies: Ode to Jack Hart

Since the late 90's, the staff at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP have been supporting Food & Friends in memory of their friend and colleague Jack Hart. They began by collecting money and pies for Thanksgiving and now serve as one of our Slice of Life Pie Sales Teams - Cleary DC for Jack Hart. A friend wrote an Ode to Jack Hart as a way to remember a man who touched the lives of so many and to share why she and the firm began supporting Food & Friends.

Ode to Jack Hart
By a former co-worker and friend

To Jack Hart, working as a paralegal at Cleary and living in DC were literally a dream come true. He visited our Nation's Capitol on a family vacation when he was a small boy and exclaimed to his family that he would live in DC one day. And, they all knew he would. He adored DC and, even when he was his sickest, never ever wanted to live any other place. In fact, he flat out refused to move back to Wilmington, NC when he was so seriously ill frequently stating "DC is my home and the place I want to be." Jack lived in Petworth in a historic co-op complex near Rock Creek Cemetery – the cemetery that ultimately became his final resting place.

In a word, Jack was a very special person. He was a true Southern gentleman, an amazing storyteller, kind, very genteel, very proud (especially to be part of the Cleary team) and possessing a remarkable wit. He had the most amazing speaking voice --- it was deep and rich. His words and thoughts were always carefully composed. Jack was a small guy and a very natty dresser. To look at him, one would never have expected such a deep voice to come out of such a little fellow -- its one of the things I miss about him the most. Add in that eastern Carolina accent --- I always said Jack had a "Radio Voice." Jack was eloquent, refined, and thoughtful. As a result of all his travels and life experiences, Jack had a true thirst for knowledge and appreciation for beauty whether it be in the flowers planted in window boxes, worldwide travel, Haitian art or study of Southern literature. But, one of the greatest areas in which Jack excelled was how he made those around him feel – special and appreciated. He knew the names of every clerk at every business he frequented and made it top priority to ask how they and their families were doing. When you were one of Jack’s closest friends, you were part of his family.

This is why his illness hit us so hard --- all his friends from Cleary. When he finally became so ill, Jack could only work sporadically. By that time, his sister and her family had all moved back to North Carolina. We friends were all he had up here in DC. And, he did not want to spend his last days in North Carolina. DC was where you choose to live and, frankly, where he wanted to die.

The last few years were very difficult --- several hospitalizations, much pain and discomfort, many periods of blue moods and depression. Very low, sad times. Already diminutive in size, Jack’s weight plummeted and keeping up his nutrition to fight his illness was a MAJOR undertaking. All of his friends brought him food, cared for him and his home as best we could. But, we had to work to make a living and couldn’t provide ‘round the clock care. (I had left Cleary by that time but the folks still at Cleary reinforced what I knew – that is, Cleary as a firm and as the caring people that make the Firm, were always there in support of Jack.)

It was then that the services of Food & Friends became a true Godsend. They provided complete meals, snacks and nutritional support delivered directly to Jack’s home. (Sometimes directly into his refrigerator.) There were many times Jack lacked the strength to open a can or even make a sandwich. When that happened, he could eat the foods provided by Food & Friends to get the nutrition he so greatly needed. I have long thought that if not for Food & Friends Jack would not have lived as long as he did, as sick as he was.

It’s been 15 years since Jack Hart passed away. And, in all those years, I’ve tried to make Food & Friends a priority for financial contributions for the great work they do and the support they give those in such great need. Jack would be so pleased to know he lives on in the memory of those at Cleary by way of donations to such a wonderful cause.

Watch Food & Friends In Action

We are very excited to share our new video with you. Watch and pass it on!







Thank you to Mercury for the pro-bono production of this video.

A Great Time in Cooking Matters Cooking Class

After spending a long weekend at the Food Nutrition Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, our nutrition team hit the road Tuesday afternoon to get back to DC in time for our second cooking class. I was happy to see new faces in the kitchen, eager to be a part of our class. Returning clients from last week were excited to talk about their experiences of making the turkey chili and cornbread recipes at home in addition to explaining what we learned last week. Kia stated, “We learned about everything in moderation and portion control from MyPlate.” A perfect transition into this week’s recipes – roasted Brussels sprouts, Portobello pizza, quinoa tabbouleh….and chocolate cake!                          

Ricardo (left) topping a Portobello mushroom with
diced tomatoes, feta cheese and fresh herbs.

Although we started off with mixing up the chocolate cake recipe for purposes of timing, we let participants know it was not to be used as an example to start meals off with dessert. We moved from the sweets into our grain and vegetable recipes, with clients demonstrating their improved knife skills in chopping the fresh parsley, mint, tomatoes, scallions, Brussels sprouts and onions. The quinoa tabbouleh got participants’ wheels turning as to how they could modify this recipe at home. Videra and Kia came up with the idea of giving the quinoa recipe a Mexican flare: “This would be great with salsa instead of tomatoes! And you could add black beans and cheese with it!”

Participants created their own pizza by topping the Portobello mushroom with feta and mozzarella cheese, freshly diced tomatoes and desired seasoning. They were very excited to use fresh herbs in the recipe this week. One client even stated “This is so great, I love using fresh herbs. I’m thinking of growing my own in little pots.”

As I walked clients out of the Food & Friends kitchen door, Ricardo turned to me and said, "I had a great time tonight, I always do!” What a rewarding ending to the second class and a warm welcome back home.

Brittany Lawrance RD, LDN, Community Dietitian

Brittany is a registered dietitian and has been with Food & Friends since October 2012. Her previous experience was working as a clinical dietitian on the pediatric hematology and oncology unit at Children’s National Medical Center. Brittany completed her dietetic internship in Baltimore, Maryland through Sodexo-Mid Atlantic and is a graduate of Bluffton University in Ohio. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis and softball, making crafts, and has a new found love for leading cooking class. Learn more about Food & Friends' nutrition services.

Adventures from Our New Community Dietitian

This week was full of new learning adventures for me, including a start to my new community dietitian role at Food & Friends as well as leading my first ever cooking class! The six week session of the fall 2012 Cooking Matters classes started off with a focus on healthy cooking basics and the USDA's MyPlate. Participants were eager to learn new cooking techniques, try a variety of new foods and learn how to substitute healthy ingredients into recipes.


Cooking Class participants practicing their
vegetable cutting skills.

What was on the menu? A perfect well balanced meal for a rainy fall day…turkey chili with vegetables, confetti pepper cornbread, and northwest apple salad. Our volunteer chef, Carol Levin (who will be leading the cooking demonstrations for each of the 6 weeks) started this session off with a bang…the bang of knives hitting a cutting board and a rolling pin crushing roasted, bagged walnuts. Both are an example of some of the new kitchen techniques participants learned at this week’s Cooking Matters class.

Each participant contributed to the different menu items by practicing their new-found knife skills cutting fresh garlic, apples, carrots and onions. In addition to the delicious aroma of chili filling the kitchen, there was excitement in learning about different ways each recipe could be modified to specific dietary needs or requests. Pauline, a client, learned how to use dried beans in place of the canned beans and other vegetables such as celery in place of the carrots in the turkey chili.

Participants enjoyed the meal they helped to prepare while learning more about food groups included in the meal. Dominique, our nutrition volunteer, reinforced the importance of a well-balanced meal, portion control, and physical activity. The food label was introduced and participants determined which foods are high and low sources of fat, cholesterol and sodium.

As this was my first experience leading Cooking Matters, I didn’t know what to expect. I was thrilled to see such a high interest level from all seven clients in learning more about nutrition and being involved in applying what they were learning to their current dietary habits. I’m excited to see where the next five weeks lead us as we learn more about each individual food group, try new recipes, and learn how to shop on a budget!

Brittany Lawrance RD, LDN, Community Dietitian

Brittany is a registered dietitian and has been with Food & Friends since October 2012. Her previous experience was working as a clinical dietitian on the pediatric hematology and oncology unit at Children’s National Medical Center. Brittany completed her dietetic internship in Baltimore, Maryland through Sodexo-Mid Atlantic and is a graduate of Bluffton University in Ohio. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis and softball, making crafts, and has a new found love for leading cooking class. Learn more about Food & Friends' nutrition services.

A Special Note from a Sister

Recently, we received a donation in memory of a client with a lovely and heartwarming note attached:

“My sister died April 2, 2011 and, prior to her going into Hospice, was at home receiving three daily meals from Food & Friends. I cannot tell you how much this meant to her and especially me – her primary caregiver. It was such an enormous relief not to have to think about food purchasing and preparation during this very difficult time. My family and I will always be so very grateful to Food & Friends for your help and Georgetown University Hospital for telling us about you! The food I would give an “outstanding” mark as it was delicious and I have actually used some of your recipes! My sister was very impressed too. Thank you for being there for us.”

Your support makes stories like these possible. And, you can continue to offer your support by donating to Food & Friends. Thanks to you, this family and families like theirs do not have to fight illness alone.

From Our Kitchen to Yours: Beef Burgundy with Mushrooms and Carrots

In 2012, the generosity of the Avon Foundation will help Food & Friends deliver more than 175,000 specialized meals to nearly 500 women and their loved ones living with breast cancer.

In addition, Food & Friends reaches out to more members of the community through cooking classes, nutrition workshops, and our participation in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. It is our goal to help people learn about the role of nutrition in preventing breast cancer and improving the efficacy of treatments. The enthusiastic and steadfast partnership between The Avon Foundation and Food & Friends expresses a dedication to enhancing quality of life for families facing breast cancer.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the new Fix-It and Forget-It PINK Cookbook hits the shelves in early October. One dollar from every book will go to the Avon Foundation for Women Breast Cancer Crusade. We were honored to be included in this special edition and know you’ll love Food & Friends' Beef Burgundy recipe.

Pick up a copy of the book and not only will you be helping to support those with breast cancer, but you’ll enjoy 700 great slow-cooker recipes, plus stories, tips, and photographs, as well as access to care providers, researchers, and participants in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer series.

BEEF BURGUNDY WITH MUSHROOMS AND CARROTS
Serves 6 to 8

3 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut into 2-inch pieces, season with salt and black pepper and dust lightly with flour

2 Tbls. Olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

½ pound white button mushrooms, de-stemmed and quartered

3 garlic gloves, chopped

2 Tbls. Tomato paste

2 Tbls. Balsamic vinegar

2 cups dry red wine

2 small bay leaves

1 thyme sprig

1 ½ cups beef broth

1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) with rack in the middle

Heat oil in a wide 4 to 6 quart heavy pot, then brown meat, without crowding the pan, in 2 batches if necessary. Make sure the meat gets nicely browned all over, then transfer to a platter.

Reduce the heat to medium, carrots, celery, onion, mushroom, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, about 10 minutes.

Add tomato paste to vegetables and continue stirring for an additional 2 minutes.

Add vinegar and cook 2 more minutes.

Stir in wine, bay leaves, and thyme and boil until liquid is reduced by about two-thirds, about 10 minutes.

Add broth and water to pot, along with the browned beef and any juices from the platter. Stir it up, and bring to a simmer. Cover and braise in the oven until meat is very tender, about 2 to 2 ½ hours.

American Dream Deferred by Cancer

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Though we've made significant strides combating this devastating illness, thousands will be diagnosed this year - many of them in our community. Food & Friends is committed to supporting individuals living with breast cancer. We are grateful for your support and partnerships with organizations like The Avon Foundation for Women who help make services for people like Ana Posada possible. Ana is a loving grandmother of 4 whose biggest dream is to watch her grandchildren grow up. Breast cancer tried to end this dream but, with the help of her family and Food & Friends, she's still going strong.

Ana Posada became an American citizen over a year ago. She was proud to be at a point in her life where she could build a better life for herself and her family. That was until one day when she felt extreme pain in her abdomen and chest. Thinking that it was nothing serious, Ana didn’t go to the doctor. But, after a few days the pain became so unbearable that she could barely move. Finally, Ana’s daughter insisted she go to the hospital.

Food & Friends' delivered meals help Ana
fight breast cancer.

Ana heard her diagnosis with disbelief and fear – it was breast cancer. How could she have cancer? How was she going to pay for treatment without insurance? The doctors kindly assured her they could remove the tumors that were growing inside her body. They also promised to connect her to social service organizations that could help pay for the extensive procedures.

Within a matter of weeks, Ana was able to get the surgery she needed and, once home, she began receiving meals from Food & Friends. “It made me so happy. I was not alone,” says Ana. “Love is all around, because there were so many people helping me.”

While going through chemotherapy treatments, Ana stays with her daughter and grandchildren. Not being able to work, Ana spends her day taking care of her grandchildren. The meals Ana receives are not only providing much-needed nutrition, but they ease the burden on her family.

“I am in too much pain to work. Food & Friends meals make it easier on me and my family – without it, I would have to depend on them a lot more.”

Ana's family has supported her through her battle
with cancer.

As Ana continues fighting breast cancer, she is very thankful to have the support of her family and community. And, thanks to organizations like Food & Friends, Ana is living the true American dream – watching her loved ones live a better life.

“I am so grateful and feel like a brand new woman,” says Ana with tears in her eyes. “I am very happy because I will be able to watch all of my grandchildren grow up.”