Stay in the Know: Your Guide to the Latest Happenings

From restaurant openings to festivals, fundraising galas to food tastings, happy hours to cultural events – the DC Metro Region is an exciting place to live and work. We are lucky to receive support from an online community who works hard to make sure you’re kept up to speed on these latest happenings. If you’re looking for something to do or experience, check out this list of our blogging friends.

All Life is Local

Been There Eaten That

Bitches Who Brunch

Brunch and the City

Capital Cooking

Cloture Club

Cook In Dine Out

DC On Heels

DC Minute

DC This Week

Dining in DC

DMV Dining

Girl Meets Food

Greg’s List DC

Guest of a Guest

Hungry Lobbyist

In a DC Minute

Johnna Knows Good Food

KStreet Kate

Little Black Blog

Luri and Wilma

Mango Tomato

RUNINOut DC

Taste DC

The Aubergine Chef

The List Are You On It

Washington Lobbyist

What Micky Eats

Woman Around Town

Yelp.com

Young & Hungry

Zagat

Top 4 Reasons to Become a Slice of Life Pie Seller

There are thousands of people in our community too sick to shop for and prepare their own meals. You can make a difference in their lives by becoming a Slice of Life Pie Seller.

Each pie you sell will provide one full day of meals to a critically ill child or adult. By giving just a little of your time, you will bring food, health and hope to thousands.

Here are 4 reasons why you should sign up today!

1. MAKE A DIFFERENCE
It might sound cliché, but you CAN make a difference! Your involvement in Slice of Life is crucial to ensuring that the most vulnerable people in our community have the nutrition needed to fight serious illnesses including cancer and HIV/AIDS. Each pie you sell provides one full day of home-delivered meals to a critically ill child or adult.

2. HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS
Because of your generosity we are able to provide nutritious food for over 3,000 Washington, DC Metro Region residents. Your support will impact their lives in very real ways:

"Your food delivery and support have made life easier. I have felt much despair over these illnesses. Your generosity gives me hope to continue on."

3. IT'S FUN & EASY
As a Pie Seller, you’ll receive an online profile for accessing sales, e-cards, selling tips and more! Plus, you can personalize your profile by uploading your own photo!

You can also start a Pie Team with friends, family and colleagues. Nothing’s better than a little friendly competition!

4. PIE-TASTIC PERKS
As if making a difference in the community is not enough, the winning Pie Seller will receive a $250 US Airways gift card!

SIGN UP TO BE A SLICE OF LIFE PIE SELLER

Food & Friends Receives $350,000 Multi-Year Grant From Carefirst

We are proud to announce that Food & Friends was awarded a $350,000, three-year grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) to provide home-delivered groceries, including fresh produce, non-perishables, frozen soups and entrees to clients in its Groceries-to-Go program. In addition to supporting the Groceries-to-Go program, the funds will be used to leverage matching support from the community.

The grant will support the delivery of 2,069,000 meals and 50,900 bags of produce to 3,400 critically ill clients over a three-year period. A significant part of this grant is to help Food & Friends improve the nutritional composition of its Groceries-to-Go offerings by providing fresh produce, olive oil, fish and whole grains to its clients.

“For those who are ill and often living with limited mobility, it can be nearly impossible to obtain fresh produce and other nutrition staples,” says Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends. “Our partnership with CareFirst will help us continue to raise the nutritional component of our services, fill the void left by ‘food deserts’, and help clients prevent and treat serious health conditions. We greatly appreciate the sustained interest demonstrated by CareFirst in helping Food & Friends meet the needs of critically ill residents in Greater Washington.”

Since 2006, Food & Friends has received nearly $900,000 in grants from CareFirst to support nutrition programming for critically ill residents in the region.

"In addition to CareFirst's larger mission of increasing access to quality, affordable health care services, CareFirst is committed to supporting programs and initiatives that foster healthy communities," said Maria Tildon, CareFirst's Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Community Affairs." Part of this support includes funding for programs targeting obesity rates and the chronic diseases associated with obesity. Through Groceries-to-Go, Food & Friends is not only going into our communities to meet a basic need, it also is encouraging individuals and families to adopt healthy lifestyles and good eating habits."

CareFirst has long been known to collaborate with the community to advance healthcare effectiveness and quality. An additional purpose of this grant is to provide Groceries-to-Go clients a chance to take charge of their overall health and nutrition by enrolling in free cooking classes led by a Registered Dietitian and hosted at Food & Friends. The classes will teach participants and their families and caregivers to prepare healthy meals from the food provided by Food & Friends and help to increase their understanding of how to maintain a healthy diet.

Let Them Eat Cake - Join Us for Marie Antoinette

On October 8th, we will take over Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for a production of Marie Antoinette to raise critical funds for our services. We hope you'll join us! 

Written by award-winning playwright, David Adjmi, the question of whether Marie Antoinette was a shallow, rich party girl, or a tragic figure constructed by a culture of luxury and celebrity is finally answered. Sit back as history’s most notorious queen realizes too late that there’s an unstoppable revolution brewing outside her window.

Sponsorships are available now beginning at $600. As a sponsor, you and your guests will indulge in pre-show cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a special treat in the lobby!

Tickets will go fast so reserve your seats now!

We look forward to spending a memorable evening with you. If you have any questions, please contact events@foodandfriends.org or call (202) 269-6893.

Random Acts of Flowers: Sweet Virginia Donates Flowers to Clients

Sweet Virginia Foundation, a honeybee conservation and education organization, is sharing nature's most colorful gift with our clients who could use a dose of cheer.

Every other week, Sweet Virginia donates beautiful flowers from their cutting garden in Northern Virginia to be delivered with our meals. Each delivery includes flowers ranging from bright yellow sunflowers to vibrant dahlias and zinnias.

Dan Price, executive director of Sweet Virginia Foundation, explains that flowers are a simple way to share love with people, even if they are complete strangers: "There is a lot of love that happens around bees and a flower garden. We didn't want these flowers to go to waste. So, when we thought about who would make the most use out of the flowers, we thought of people who are sick who may be dealing with a lot in their lives. Food & Friends was the perfect organization for this."

Thank you Sweet Virginia for your unique gifts to our clients. Check out some photos of these beautiful flowers below:

Thank You Third-Party Fundraisers!

Food & Friends is the grateful recipient of proceeds from numerous third-party fundraising events organized by community groups and individuals wishing to support our mission.

Since 2005, Doodles in Dewey has been raising money for Food & Friends to
honor a man who died from AIDS. This year's event raised more than $4,000.

Thank you to those who have organized events so far this year and for introducing new supporters to Food & Friends.

Aspen Institute
Bacon & Beer Festival

Clover Restaurant Group
Doodles in Dewey

Hit & Run 5K

Horman Violin Studio

Jenner & Block 100th Anniversary Fundraiser

Marc Dalton Pride Birthday Party

NBC4 Reunion Ride
Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox
Stonewall Darts

Washington Kastles Charity Classic

If you would like to host an event or promotion for Food & Friends, please contact events@foodandfriends.org.

Better Serving Our Clients Through Technology

Our client database is integral to the work we do. It would be impossible to prepare and deliver more than 3,500 meals each day without it.

With a new client database, we will work smarter, faster
and achieve greater health outcomes for our clients.

Our current system, MealService, was developed in 2003 when we were serving far fewer clients and had less need for data. However, as our services have become more complex and as our client population continues to grow, we have made it a priority to upgrade our system.

Thanks to generous gifts from the Effi Barry HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Program and the World Bank Community Connections Fund, we are currently transitioning from MealService to a new, more advanced software, ClientTrack.

This new software will enhance our ability to execute our current programming, better evaluate the health outcomes of our clients and increase our capacity to serve more of our neighbors. Specifically, ClientTrack will reduce the time needed to start clients on service by streamlining our intake process, track and quantify outcomes of client health goals and analyze trends, conduct more sophisticated tracking of clients’ health status, communicate directly with each clients’ healthcare providers and ensure on-time meal delivery by integrating an online mapping service.

A high-functioning client database provides an opportunity to improve our clients’ lives—from better understanding and meeting their nutritional needs to better mapping systems for delivery staff and volunteers who bring clients their much needed sustenance. And as a result, we will work smarter, faster and achieve greater health outcomes for our clients.