Blog / Development

Every day, volunteers help Bread for the City keep running. But it’s not everyday that we have volunteers paint the entire exterior of a building! However, on June 8,  Bread for the City’s long-time Corporate Partner, MCN Build volunteered to paint the outside of our old Southeast Center to improve its appearance. Nearly 20 volunteers worked outside in almost 90 degree weather for 5+ hours. This was a great opportunity for a community service project by the MCN Build Foundation, which resulted in getting a fresh new look to our facility. 

Bread for the City (BFC) is excited to announce its annual Holiday Helpings program, a nearly thirty-year tradition that supports area DC families in need through the holidays. Last year, the program transitioned from its tradition of giving out turkeys and other staple holiday food items to embrace a necessary direction to better support over 16,000 DC households by providing critical monetary resources.  In alignment with last year’s progression, BFC will work this year to increase its support in communities hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Bread for the City is focused on bringing an anti-racist lens to every part of our mission and that includes our generous supporters. BFC believes that our donors of color aren’t centered enough in our work. BFC knows that fundraising has white supremacy roots and is working to both acknowledge the history and be the antidote to fundraise in an antiracist way.

Bread for the City has recently created a partnership with +One, a nonprofit organization that redirects perfectly healthy food from being discarded and instead reroutes it to individuals and families who experience hunger. #HelpingPeople

What I’ve learned over the past year is that antiracism and fighting white supremacy is not an intellectual endeavor. It is an embodied, healing, lifelong journey full of mistakes, love, and discomfort. As a Jewish white woman, I wrestled with how my heritage, intergenerational trauma, and internalized antisemitism were all wrapped up in white supremacy and fighting racism. I’m writing this to reflect on my own experience in hopes that more white people will join me on an antiracist journey.

Our Farmers Market is now available to members of the general public while supplies last at 10 am. The second Friday of the month will be held at our Northwest Center and the fourth Friday of the month will be held at our Southeast Center.

Bread for the City has completed construction on a new, 27,650 square foot comprehensive service center at 1700 Good Hope Road, SE, which began January 2019. Here’s a new video that captures all the special moments during the virtual grand opening.

This year, Bread for the City changed its strategy for Holiday Helpings, a 30+ year tradition for an almost 50-year-old organization. Holiday Helpings in 2020 was about standing on the pillars of equity and inclusion by providing the resources for community members to have autonomy for their holiday plans. Instead of turkeys and hams, we gave families and individuals gift cards; maybe a turkey or ham is not truly what they needed or wanted this holiday season, maybe paying a past due bill, buying groceries, buying winter gear, purchasing diapers, or filling up the car with gas is the priority.