Feeding More People

Early this month, Moveable Feast expanded our list of community partnerships and clients by joining forces with Feeding the People, a local non-profit that provides services for low-income diabetics.

Moveable Feast is pleased to provide diabetic-appropriate meals for up to ten Baltimore area clients, the cost of which is subsidized by Feeding the People. If you yourself or any friends or family members struggle with diabetes, you know how important nutrition is in maintaining both day-to-day and long-term health.

As noted on Feeding the People’s website, low income diabetics face three major obstacles to managing their nutritional needs:

1.       The high cost of fresh, unprocessed whole foods;

2.       The prohibitive expense of frequent trips to the grocery store to purchase perishable foods; and

3.       The lack of intensive, ongoing, nutritional guidance and education.

As poorly managed diets can lead diabetics to have a number of serious complications, including obesity, kidney disease and strokes, the meals we provide, paired with the education and support services offered by Feeding the People, will save lives.

To learn more about the great work Feeding the People is doing, click here.

Homelessness on the Rise in Baltimore

No one should be sick, poor, alone and hungry. That’s what we believe at Moveable Feast, and why, beyond delivering food to people’s homes, we also provide meals for homeless men and women through a number of Baltimore City shelter services, including Jobs Housing Recovery as well as Code Blue Shelter.

Late last week, Morgan State released their 2011 Homeless Point In Time Census Report, and the results are disturbing. At any point in time, there are 4,088 individuals considered homeless in Baltimore, a 19.6% increase from their last census in 2009. Chronic disease was cited as one of the top three health concerns that impact the homeless population, and the study noted that, overall, “rates of HIV among the homeless are at least three times higher compared to the general population.” Even as homeless individuals experienced increased health issues, relatively few of them reported receiving treatment, including only 3.9% of those struggling with HIV/AIDS.

Those numbers—the thousands of men, women and children without a home and battling illness--- are hard to completely comprehend. The sad fact of a growing homeless population in Baltimore, however, makes the work we do --- putting nourishing food on the table for those who still have homes and those struggling to regain housing--- even more important.   

To read the full report, click here.

September is Hunger Action Month

Can you count how many times a week the words “I’m hungry” come out of your mouth? At Moveable Feast we’re guilty of it too; we’re ‘hungry’ while waiting in the microwave line to heat up our lunches or when sauntering up to our volunteer manager’s office to see what extra snacks he has to offer in between meals. Food is certainly crucial for all of us, but unlike our clients, not many of us have experienced the pangs of true hunger or the anxiety over finding our next meal.  

That’s why September as Hunger Action Month is so important. It’s a chance to put things into perspective for the fortunate among us and a chance to take action to help the over 500,000 Marylanders living below the federal poverty level.  While only a week and a half remains in September, there are a number of ways to participate:

1.       Dine Out & Save Lives

Moveable Feast’s 18^th Annual Dining Out for Life event is tomorrow, September 22^nd! Eating out with friends, family and coworkers Thursday is one easy way to FEED people, FIGHT disease and FOSTER hope. There are over 40 participating restaurants who will be donating 20-50% of proceeds to Moveable Feast. Click here for the full list.

2.       Food Stamp Challenge

While Maryland Hunger Solutions’ official Food Stamp Challenge started Monday, you can still check out their online Food Stamp Challenge Diary. These articles are written by people who commit to the challenge of feeding themselves for a week on a $30 budget (the average amount of food stamps people get in MD). Their diary entries will provide a glimpse into some of the challenges that food insecure people face on a daily basis.

3.       Feeding America

Help Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, spread the word about Hunger Action Month by watching their celebrity videos (one of which is below) and sharing them with your friends. Their goal is to reach 1 million people by 9/30/11.  



'Tis the Season...for Workplace Giving!

Moveable Feast is rolling up our banners, copying our materials, collecting our business cards and heading out to represent the great work we do at kick-off events and fairs across the Greater Baltimore region. Every year around this time, government and private employees alike have the opportunity to sign up for charitable giving through payroll deductions. It’s an easy, tax-deductable way to give back, and we encourage you to designate Moveable Feast for your gift (look for us under Community Health Charities!). With our average cost of $1.80 per meal, every $9 donation will provide 5 free, nutritious meals for a man, woman or child struggling with a severe illness. See our different designation codes below!

·         United Way/Community Health Charities (CHC): all Central MD campaigns                          #6574

o    Combined Charity Campaign (CCC): for Baltimore City Employees                                            

o    Maryland Charity Campaign (MCC): for MD State Employees                                                     

·         United Way/CHC: Eastern Shore campaigns                                                                                   #54

·         Combined Charity Campaign in Frederick: Government & public school employees            #0527

·         Chesapeake Bay Area Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): for Federal Employees                #14810

 If you see us at an agency fair or campaign tabling event, stop by to say hello!

Making Birthdays Sweet with Dia de los Cupcakes



Birthdays represent so many different things to different people; an exciting day to be celebrated, a marker of age and growing older, a time to indulge in guilt-free sugary deliciousness. For men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS or cancer, like those we serve at Moveable Feast, a birthday means another year of life lived, another four seasons witnessed. Despite the hardships of poverty and the daily struggle with illness, reaching another birthday means victory and hope. 

A few months ago, to recognize these very important milestones, we started delivering a birthday card to our clients on their special day along with the usual meals. But just this week, Dia de los Cupcakes, a vegan cupcakery based in Catonsville, took these celebratory efforts to the next level. After learning about our mission, Liz Barr, the owner of Dia de los Cupcakes, offered to join our cause by donating birthday cupcakes. An expert at creating tasty vegan cupcakes, she had no trouble crafting cupcakes for our clients, which will be presented during the first delivery of each client’s birthday month. This Monday, we celebrated 12 birthdays through Liz’s first batch of specialty cupcakes. We are so happy to have Dia de los Cupcakes on board, helping to make each important birthday for our clients a little sweeter.      

If you have an idea or talent you’d like to share to brighten our clients’ days, please contact Tom Patrick at tpatrick@mfeast.org.  

Ryan White Update

It’s been two weeks now since we first announced our difficult decision to reduce services to our clients.  As promised, we want to fill you in on what has happened since then and where we are in terms of resolving this situation. 

The Good News: Moveable Feast recently received some partial reimbursements due to us through our Ryan White Grant, which supports us in feeding people with AIDS. This was for services provided through June, 2011. In addition, we have been informally notified of our remaining July-February 2012 award.

The Bad News: As we provided service over the course of 3 months without any reimbursement, the recent partial reimbursements are only enough to sustain our current level of reduced services. We will not be able to implement full service to our clients until we’ve received full payment for services already provided and new contracts from Ryan White that will fund us to continue providing services through February 2012.  We are hopeful that these requirements will be met by October 1^st.

Your Response & Our Thanks: We’ve been overwhelmed by the tremendous support from our donors and volunteers since we posted our first update.  So many of you have supported us financially – with over $30,000 in donations -  and/or took time out of your busy schedules to come and volunteer in our kitchen or to make deliveries to our clients.  You have our deepest gratitude for helping us and our clients during this challenging time. Thank you.

We will continue to keep you updated.  We know that you share our hope that, very soon, this will be behind us and that our clients – who depend on us for their food – will again receive their regular deliveries.