Soup-er Bowl Event a Success for AFAC!

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February 2020

Empty Bowls Recap

Our 8th Annual Empty Bowls on Sunday, February 2, was a huge success! Thank you to our sponsors, soup & bread donors, potters, raffle donors, volunteers from H-B Woodlawn, Simon's Junction for the music, Saint Andrews Episcopal Church for hosting, and especially the Empty Bowls committee for putting this all together. Also, thanks to Senator Mark Warner for stopping by the event and sharing kind words about AFAC.

Click for photos

Click for event video

Click for feature in Arlington Connection

Staff Updates

Please help us in welcoming Stephanie Hopkins, the newest staff member at AFAC! Stephanie joins the team as the new Director of Programs. She previously held Director level roles at United Community Ministries and The Reading Connection.

Stephanie has also been a volunteer with AFAC for nearly 10 years, serving as a check-in volunteer for Tuesday evening food distributions once a month, was part of the Young Professionals committee, and helped AFAC in other various roles.

Over the past couple of months, we have added two members to our warehouse staff. Tyree Speight and Jake Clark have joined the AFAC team as Warehouse Assistants. We are happy to have all on board!

Featured Donation Item of the Month

Use Amazon Smile’s Charity Lists to donate food and have it shipped directly to AFAC! For the month of February, we are featuring food items that are red. Tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene, lutein, and beta-carotene. Red lentil pasta is high in protein and low in calories. Plus a few more items we know our families enjoy! Click here to learn more about our revolving charity lists and to access this month's items on Amazon.

Upcoming Events

Spring Garden Kick-off

Saturday, March 7

AFAC's Plot Against Hunger program invites you to its 7th annual Spring Garden Kick-off! Learn how to start your own garden or how to get involved to help grow fresh produce for families in need.

This event features speakers, breakout sessions by local experts, hands on activities, exhibit tables, free seeds, and more!

Event is FREE and open to all - no gardening experience necessary. Click here to RSVP.

Shining A Light on Hunger

Thursday, March 26

Join AFAC at our annual Spring event, Shining A Light on Hunger! Don’t miss out on food, fun, and dancing at the Army Navy Country Club as we Shine a Light on Hunger and honor those in our community who contribute to AFAC’s success of feeding our neighbors in need.

For sponsorship inquiries or event questions, please contact Jolie Smith at Jolie.Smith@afac.org.

BbG Obstacle Run/Walk for AFAC

Saturday, April 25

The 8th annual Body By Ginny 5k Obstacle Run/Walk will be on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00am. Teams will gather at the Potomac Overlook basketball court and start their race at one-minute intervals. Form your team (up to 8 people) and register today!

Volunteer Needs

AFAC Survey Volunteers Needed!

We are looking for friendly and reliable volunteers to survey our clients at our off-site locations next week. We need help every day (during daytime hours) between Tuesday and Friday for no longer than 2 hours. We highly encourage Spanish speakers, but welcome anyone who has flexibility in their schedule next week. These surveys only take about 5 minutes for a client to complete and participation increases when someone is there to encourage them. The surveys provide us with meaningful data that we can use to improve our services. Please go to the online calendar and look for shifts that work for your schedule. If you have any questions, please email volunteer4afac@afac.org.

Census 2020

AFAC is part of Arlington County's Complete Count Committee to ensure an accurate count in the 2020 Census. It is important that everyone complete the census in the Spring of 2020. Some of the hardest people to count are immigrants, transient workers, and non-English speakers, who are a significant portion of AFAC clients.

During the week of March 30 – April 4, AFAC will host Census Bureau officials at our Nelson street location for all morning and evening distributions. The officials will be available to help our clients complete the census. We are also looking for some AFAC volunteers to encourage clients to participate!

If you are interested in helping with the census, look for open spots on the volunteer calendar. You will be invited to come to a weekday afternoon training session (date TBD), most likely at Arlington Mill Community Center.

Volunteer Spotlight

Distribution Check-in Volunteers

Our check-in volunteers are the most critical in our distribution process. We can't run a distribution without one! Volunteers are trained in our client management system. They know our policies and sometimes have to enforce our rules about eligibility. It's a tough job but also very rewarding. Most of our clients tend to come on the same day, so a relationship is built between the volunteer and the client when they see each other regularly. Our daytime volunteers are here for about 3 hours each week and our evening and Saturday volunteers are here for about 3 hours once a month. It's not an exaggeration to say that they are essential volunteers.

We have an opening for a new client check-in volunteer on the 3rd Tuesday evening of each month. You must receive special training, be available almost every time, and be willing to make at least a one-year commitment. You must be at least age 18 and we prefer people who are conversational in Spanish (but not required).

If you're interested in learning more or interested in filling this need, please email us at volunteer4afac@afac.org.

Plot Against Hunger

Garden Talks

Wednesdays, 7pm

The 2020 schedule for weekly garden talks at Arlington Central Library is now available! Garden Talks start up the Wednesday following the Spring Garden Kick-off event. Click here to view the dates and topics covered for this season.

Thank You

Thank you to all those who held food drives or donated to Plot Against Hunger in January!

10th and Barton Community Garden; Amanda Taylor; Anytime Fitness; Aperture Apartments; Arlington Church of the Brethren; Arlington County's Aging & Disability Services Division; Arlington County Fire Department; Arlington Traditional School; Arlington Village Management Office; Bethel UCC; Boy Scout Troop #1143; Brigade of Mercy; Capital One; Cherrydale Branch Library; Cherrydale United Methodist Church; Central Library & Garden; Central Methodist Church; Clarendon Presbyterian Church Garden; Columbia Pike Branch Library; CORT Furniture; Crystal City Lofts; Crystal Towers; CWTSato Travel; Decision Lens; Expanse Inc.; Fairlington Villages; Fillmore Garden Apartments; Gates Hudson; Good Sweat Studio; Horizon House Condominiums; Icon at Dulles; Kelli & Rich Taylor; Kinder Haus Toys; Maxi Bowdaxi Mobile Grooming; McEnearney Associates, Inc; Memorial Baptist Church; Molly Wilkinson; NOVA Catholic Community; Oakridge Elementary; One to One Fitness; Prospect House Apartments; Rebecca Morrissey; Resurrection Lutheran Church and Garden; Rock Spring UCC & Garden; Rolling Brook Apartments; Select Medical; Share of McLean; Shirlington Branch Library; St. Ann's Catholic Church; St. John's Episcopal Church; St. Peter's Episcopal Church; Temple Rodef Shalom; The Chatham; The Mitre Corporation; The Nature Conservancy; The Reserve at Clarendon Centre; Unity Club; Verde Pointe Apartments; Walker Chapel; Westover Branch Library & Garden

Big thanks to the Arlington Public Schools that donate healthy snacks on a weekly basis as a part of the Food Bus program: Abingdon ES, Arlington Science Focus ES, Arlington Traditional ES, Ashlawn ES, Discovery ES, McKinley ES, Nottingham ES, Oakridge ES, Tuckahoe ES, Temple Rodef Shalom's Religious School, and Washington-Liberty HS.