It has been another busy week at Food For All DC. There were 84 calls from clients and social workers during the week that resulted in over 200 people receiving food deliveries.
This week we started to get requests for food from the unemployed, mostly those laid off from restaurants. In addition, a lot more single mothers called with young children to feed at home. Many people have seen their support systems taken away from them. A woman in transitional housing said that her homeless daycare center closed, leaving her without a place to get food.
Another initiative we started this week was calling clients to see how they are doing and to ask if they need additional support. One single mother who has a son with leukemia and cerebral palsy was grateful: “Thank you for the call,” she said, “I was feeling lonely.”
The feedback from clients has been encouraging. A 79-year-old woman with respiratory problems said, on receiving confirmation of her food delivery: “I am about to cry, but they are tears of joy.” Another new client said, “You people are angels. Thank you for taking risks to help us out.”
FFA client with underlying health issues who is unable to leave her house.
On the operational side we were very busy also. We packed and delivered over 100 bags of food on Saturday morning. Social Distancing at the church was in effect as shown below.
We made up 35 routes (requiring up to 35 drivers) and the demand from volunteer drivers was AMAZING! In the end we had to turn away almost 20 cars!
Mark and Marcell did an outstanding job managing traffic. Here is Mark give a new driver the lowdown…
Check out the line of cars waiting to get a route!
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Finally it’s been another great week for our Fundraising efforts and have so far raised well over $10,000. This may sound like a lot but we will be quadrupling our spending for the foreseeable future.
Please continue to give generously and share our GoFundMe with your friends, family and social network.
Thanks!
The Food for All DC team.