How Can I Help?
Need to cancel any upcoming shifts, help with Volunteer Hub, have any questions about bringing a friend to volunteer with us, or anything else!? Just email cmoore@foodandfriends.org.
Vital Information For Your Volunteer Life
Food & Friends will close early on Tue. Dec. 5th (@3 p.m.) and Wed. Dec. 13th (@ 12 p.m.).
The building will be closed on Mon. Dec. 25th and Mon. Jan. 1st, reopening on the following Tuesdays.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Thank you to everyone who assisted our efforts throughout Thanksgiving and Slice of Life. Each year we are astonished by the support of volunteers and donors, and this year was no different.
With your efforts, we sold 6,500 pies during Slice of Life! Over the three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving Day, we had:
- 100+ Thanksgiving volunteers help to portion & prepare turkeys and side dishes.
- 20 volunteers deliver Turkey Boxes to our clients who live further out (Hagerstown, Manassas, Germantown, etc.).
- 200 volunteers distribute Slice of Life pies on Pie Distribution Day in DC, MD, and VA.
- 400+ volunteers on Thanksgiving Day help to get Thanksgiving meals to over 800 clients—kitchen volunteers as early as 4 a.m., Fort Totten volunteers to load vehicles and cheers volunteers on, and volunteers getting out on the road to get those meals to client homes.
We’ve received countless “thank you” messages from clients, and many from volunteers who experienced a Food & Friends Thanksgiving for the first time.
As always, thank you for your continued support and dedication to the mission of this organization.
Holiday Needs/Reminders
If you are going away for the Winter Holidays and are still scheduled for your regular shift and need to cancel, please manage your schedule online or let us know ASAP so we can remove you from the schedule and fill in any gaps.
If you will be in the area throughout December and January, we always need more volunteers!
You can register for shifts online: https://foodandfriends.volunteerhub.com/
If you know any individuals or families interested in one-off volunteer opportunities—kitchen and delivery—please pass along our volunteer information.
Please email Kitchen Volunteer Coordinator Saskia Sams-Yeboah for assistance: ssams-yeboah@foodandfriends.org
Holiday Gift Drive 2023
We continue our work delivering free, medically tailored meals and groceries to our neighbors in DC, MD, and VA living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses throughout the holiday season. With 66% of our clients living with household incomes of less than $1,500/month, we know that the holiday season can be a challenging time for these families. We want to ease some of their stress, and with your help, we would like to provide gifts to our clients’ children this holiday season. Together we can make this gift drive a success.
We are collecting gifts for children between the ages of 1-17 (with a high need for our teenage age range 11-17, though all are appreciated), and some easy gift ideas include Legos, board games, dolls, books, art supplies, sports balls, and stuffed animals. Each gift should not exceed $25 in value, and we need the gifts to be at Food & Friends by no later than Wednesday, December 13th. This gives us time to sort, wrap, and organize the deliveries to these families in need, and gift deliveries will take place December 14th-23rd.
*If you’re gift is scheduled to arrive after the 16th, that is completely ok, and they will still be accepted.*
There is also an Amazon wish list with toys that can be purchased and sent directly to Food & Friends that you can find here. If you decide to purchase from the Amazon wish list:
- Check “include gift receipt” during checkout to share your name and email address. This allows us to send you a receipt for tax deduction purposes.
- Forward on your confirmation email with which items you bought to sbennett@foodandfriends.org
We appreciate any gifts you are able to provide, and we ask you to keep in mind the diverse array of clients we serve when buying dolls/action figures; it is important that children see themselves represented in their toys.
Your kindness would make an incredible, positive impact on these families during the holiday season, and we hope you consider donating to the gift drive.
Thank you!
Chanel Moore
(202) 269-6832
cmoore@foodandfriends.org