Happy Valentine's Day!

Today we'd like to share this video of one of our clients, Judith, documented by one of our partner agencies, HopeSprings.

Judith talks about what a difference Moveable Feast has made in her life - and not just by regularly delivering nutritious meals to her doorstep. It's stories like Judith's that remind us about the emotional impact of our services. Judith talks about the unconditional love that Moveable Feast has shown her over the years by simply always being there for her, without fail. It's a great story and we encourage all readers to take a look at the video.

Happy Valentine's Day from Moveable Feast!

The Living Red Ribbon Project: A Reflection

On October 9th, Moveable Feast and the Partnership for Life gathered at Rash Field at the Inner Harbor for the B'more Aware of HIV: The Living Red Ribbon event. Hundreds of volunteers and Baltimore citizens joined us to promote a new awareness of HIV in the City. 

 

Here is a reflection of the day by Melissa Otterbein, event volunteer and HopeSprings volunteer. HopeSprings is a local organization that works to "equip the Church to provide hope and healing to those impacted by HIV/AIDS in Baltimore and beyond." To learn more about HopeSprings, visit www.hopesprings.org.

As I walked to Rash Field on the sunny Saturday morning of October 9, 2010, my heart was filled with an incredible sense that I was about to embark upon something bigger than myself, something unique, and something that was a relevant way to stand up for advocacy about a health and social issue that so readily impacts this world, and in particularly, Baltimore City. Do you know those moments where your heart is wrapped up in something so much bigger than yourself that you can’t even really put your experience into words?

The B’more Aware Red Ribbon event tugged at my heart for each of those things. As crowds began to gather at Rash Field, slowly turning the field into a sea of red, something was happening. A crowd became fully awake and alive (with some assistance, perhaps, through the free Starbucks coffee that was given out), with morale from government leaders, media, faith-based organizations, community organizations, and community members to show support for HIV/AIDS awareness. Participants were each given a red ribbon poster to hold up and together, participants formed an outline of a red ribbon. Singers led us into songs of joy, and also songs of reflection, as participants were left to ponder how easily strangers could come together and lay any differences aside to support one great cause.
 

As B’More Aware becomes an annual event, I look forward to coming back year after year to show the world, along with the people of Baltimore, that epidemic doesn’t have to do be the way it is-that HIV/AIDS is real and being silent about it is never the answer. Events like B’More Aware are the kinds of things that the world needs more of. Next October 2011, will you stand in red with us?

Click here to watch the B'more Aware of HIV promotional video, or learn more about the event at the B'more website.

Interview with our Volunteers, Part II – “The Volunteer Experience”

Ruth, Joyce, and Jeanne have been volunteering at Moveable Feast for years; Ruth for eleven, and Jeanne and Joyce for eight. Today, they are sharing their experiences.

What is your favorite part of volunteering at Moveable Feast?

Jeanne: The bike ride. I volunteer every year. Oh, no, I don’t ride. But I work at the pit stops, helping out the Riders.

Ruth: I also help out at the bike ride.

Jeanne: Oh yes she does! Ruth acts as the ‘head of security’ at the end of the bike ride. Unofficially of course. She just waits for the Riders to arrive and then she lectures them if they have to use the bathroom. Haha.

Ruth: Indeed I do. I say, “Didn’t your mother always tell you to use the bathroom before you leave?”

So what has been the most fulfilling part of volunteering here for each of you?

Joyce: I would have to say that I enjoy knowing that I am helping people that really need it. They are sick and nutrition is so important when you are sick. If you don’t have proper food to eat, you can’t possibly get better. It’s fulfilling to know that I am doing something worthwhile.

Joyce: I also enjoy baking cookies. We don’t do it here so much, but at Haussner’s, we used to bake a great deal. We even baked gingerbread cookies, little men and women cookies, one year at the holidays. They were decorated and everything.

Jeanne: Another year we did those sugar cookies too. They were baggied up into little bags and given to the kids in the families of the clients.

Moveable Feast uses people with special needs in their kitchen and packing room, and EVERYONE enjoys working with them! How have you found it?

Joyce: You know, when they first start, they are very tentative, and don’t quite know what they are doing or what they should be doing, and it’s very nice to see them mature and really get into their responsibilities.

Ruth: Yes, I agree. There is a girl named Jessie who works in the kitchen. She makes the sandwiches. And we’ll see her, and we’ll wave, or say hello, but she won’t speak to us at all. She’ll just grin and look down. But she’s never spoken to us.

Jeanne: Or there is Raymond, who is definitely autistic. He works in groceries-to-go. And he definitely has trouble communicating sometimes with us. But the one thing he is truly great at is moving things. He is big and strong and can pick anything up and carry it.

Joyce: If he sees one of us struggling with something, he will come over and help us carry it to wherever it needs to go.

Jeanne: And we had one of those volunteer appreciation events where the families of the volunteers come and celebrate what they have done. And Raymond’s family was there. And his mother told us how happy he is to go to work every day. You know, he’s 21, just out of high school, and really has nothing to do all day. He is so excited to come to work. He really has taken his responsibilities seriously. 

Any last thoughts about volunteering at Moveable Feast?

Jeanne: And I gotta say that the work ethic of these kids is so impressive. And you really learn some great skills while volunteering here. In particular, fantastic kitchen sanitation rules.

Joyce: You gotta be very careful in the kitchen in general. But with the needs of the clients that this kitchen serves, we have to be extra careful. We have all learned great kitchen skills.

Jeanne: We’ve been here so long that we finally got real Moveable Feast aprons! After ten years! We can use them instead of the plastic ones. The only thing is…I keep forgetting to bring mine each week.

Joyce: I just don’t bring mine – I don’t want to get stains on it, I like it so much!

Interview with our Volunteers - "Moveable Feast Throughout the Years"

Ruth, Joyce, and Jeanne have been volunteering at Moveable Feast for years; Ruth for eleven, and Jeanne and Joyce for eight. Today, they are sharing their experiences.

So how did you find out about Moveable Feast? What continues to bring you here to volunteer your time?

Ruth: I found Moveable Feast through the local paper eleven years ago. I like food, I like being around food, I’m generally a food person, so I figured I would enjoy spending some of my extra time around food. I had been helping my daughter with her kids, but then the kids went back to school, so I had a great deal of extra time. And another thing that brings me to Moveable Feast is the people. Everyone is so nice and welcoming here. I met Jeanne and Joyce and we have been volunteering together for years. I really enjoy spending time here. And it’s very fulfilling to get thank-yous from the people we help, and to know that they are grateful. It’s great to help people that are going through such difficult times. 

How did you guys start volunteering? What got you interested? 

Joyce: You know, I volunteer at Moveable Feast because when I was growing up, there were always people that didn’t have food. And my grandmother and mother would always go out there and help them out.

Jeanne: My family was in the food business. You know, grocery stores and markets. Even the men were very involved with food. All the men in my family, all they could talk about was food. So I was always interested in food.
So what do you do on a typical day volunteering here?

Jeanne: We pack the food. We don’t get a great deal of contact with the people that we serve. Sometimes we work in the kitchen preparing the food, you know, cutting and cooking. But mostly we pack the food into the containers that are delivered to the homes. We use the machine that plastic-wraps the containers with an airtight seal. 

Joyce: Yeah, we used to do it all by hand though. We didn’t get that machine until about two, two-and-a-half years ago. Until then, all the food packaging was done one-by-one. The containers were like Tupperware, with the lids that click on.

Jeanne: Yes, the machine has definitely increased the amount of food we can package and serve. I think we got it from St. Benedict’s, originally. 

Jeanne and Ruth have been volunteering at Moveable Feast for so long that they have seen the transition of the organization through many different locations.

Jeanne: We used to be back at The Haussner’s Restaurant, which is kind of like a Baltimore landmark, a very popular restaurant back in the day. When it shut down, Haussner’s was given to the Culinary Institute, who did not have a use for it at the time, so it was rented out to Moveable Feast. It was a very large space but was not good to work in. The equipment was very old and the ceiling was so leaky!

Joyce: Yeah, you guys had to pick your way around the buckets to catch the dripping water!

Jeanne: Then we moved to St. Benedict’s, which was kind of like a cafeteria-style kitchen in an old basement. It was very small. Finally we moved to 901 N. Milton Ave, which is a great location!

What other changes have you guys appreciated?

Joyce: The best part is the chef, Damon. You can tell that with him, the quality of the food is much finer. We make so many more things from scratch than we did before. Before, many of the foods contained a number of processed things – now, most of it is from scratch.

Jeanne: And the appearance of the food is so much better with him. It just LOOKS tastier! He uses more seasoning and spices than ever before.

Jeanne: Here’s another great thing about Damon – he is so approachable. Basically, I have this garden in my neighborhood. And everyone in the surrounding houses comes and tends to this garden, where we grow produce and herbs. And I could not determine what a particular herb was, and Damon graciously said he would take a look at it. 


TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK...

Mark Paul: Counting my Blessings

Saturday I went to the Waverly market – the market was filled with the bounty of summer.  Squash of every color, tomatoes of every shape and size, fruit galore and more.  It is the time of year when I buy bushels of tomatoes and make my tomato sauce to can for the winter months.  Loaded up with bags of all sorts of tomatoes, garlic and basil, I came home and started cooking.  After cooking on Saturday, Sunday night I did not feel like making dinner, so I ordered in Chinese.

My weekend may not seem extraordinary in any way – I picked up fresh produce, cooked, and decided to order food in for dinner.  But for other people in our community struggling with a life threatening disease and little means – access to nutritional meals is a daily struggle.  Without proper nourishment, HIV, breast cancer and other diseases can thrive and take advantage of someone’s disadvantage.

By supporting Moveable Feast, I support those in our community who need our help.  Moveable Feast provides over 52,000 meals a month (13,000 per week) to our clients – many of whom would have no other means or the energy to prepare nutritious meals for themselves.   I think about our clients living alone faced with the stigma of being HIV positive – where a hug and support from MF's driver delivering meals makes the world of difference because it shows someone cares about them.  I think about the stories of mothers fighting breast cancer whose children meet our driver at the door to receive meals for the family and the children, even at a young age, who will heat up the meals for the family.

My visit to the market and my cooking this weekend reminded me that I am blessed. I am blessed by the little things in life  – I just need to remember that more often.

Mark Paul Lehman is on the Board of Directors of Moveable Feast.

Tom's Story

These are tough times to be leading non-profit organizations. The challenge of engaging donors, identifying potential Board members, raising funds, creating innovative approaches to programs and services seems overwhelming at times. Still, there is a passion that drives me to do this work and ensure that Moveable Feast succeeds in its mission and vision to feed people, fight disease and foster hope. I have worked in the nonprofit, human services field for more than 25 years. Living in one of the most affluent countries in the world, I am personally committed to the issue of poverty and, thus, the impact areas of basic services: food, clothing, housing, and health care. These are the immediate impacts of poverty; without these basic needs secured each day, people cannot function. Poverty robs your quality of life: depletes your self-esteem so that you don’t recognize your own face in the mirror. In the face of poverty you can’t provide for your family; can’t maintain employment; have no money for health care; don’t care about tomorrow. In the face of poverty you are forced to surrender choices; live where others tell you; eat what is unhealthy; you can’t provide for your kids as you would like; you have limited choices for education… and on and on. 

For years I heard the adage: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a life.

It sounds so simple, but it is a complicated and oftentimes an arduous task. By the time the boy who has grown up in poverty is a man and ready to “learn to fish” poverty may robbed him of the basic foundations on which “learning to fish” is built. It’s a costly investment of resources: time, talent, and commitment of individuals and organizations to be in there for the long haul, not for a band-aid moment.

If Moveable Feast brings comfort and assurance of a daily meal to one person who is sick and alone (and we do this for more than 1100 people a week) – than we have maintained quality of life for that individual. Imagine being poor; being critically ill and being alone. I have been all three in my life, never at the same time. How about you?

Thomas Bonderenko is the Executive Director of Moveable Feast.