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Food & Friends
“Food & Friends provides specialized, nutritious meals, groceries, nutrition counseling and friendship to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.
Food & Friends’ staff of professional chefs and Community Dietitians design meals that meet the special dietary needs of persons living with a broad range of illnesses. Our confidential services are free of charge to individuals and families living throughout Washington, DC, 7 counties of Maryland and 7 counties and 6 independent cities of Virginia. The service area encompasses approximately 5,300 square miles.
At a rate of six-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year, Food & Friends feeds our clients. They deliver each day, Monday-Saturday, including holidays. Since our inception, Food & Friends has provided nearly 12 million meals to more than 18,850 individuals. In 2008, Food & Friends served more than 913,036 meals to more than 2,679 individuals.
This is a very popular service site. Spaces fill-up well in advance.
What do volunteers do?
The Food & Friends kitchen and grocery pantry are always hopping with activity! They prepare more than 3,000 meals each day, so it takes many helping hands to make sure all the food is prepped, portioned and packaged correctly. Food & Friends’ kitchen is a hands-on atmosphere where you can learn as much about how to chop an onion as you can about the volunteer who is chopping next to you. No culinary experience is needed, just a willingness to pitch-in and get the job done. You must be at least 14 years old to volunteer in the kitchen and 18 years old to use knives or other slicing equipment.
What times/days are available?
Kitchen shifts are generally available the following days and times:
Monday-Thursday: 7:00-9:00am, 9:00am-Noon, 1:00-3:00pm, 5:30-8:00pm
Friday: 7:00-9:00 am, 9:00 am-Noon
Grocery pantry shifts are generally available the following days and times:
Monday-Friday: 8:00-10:00am, 10:00 am-Noon
Contact: Jane Yamakin, 202.269.6824, email. Food and Friends can accommodate teams in both their kitchen/grocery pantry and out on the road making meal deliveries. An orientation will be held the same day prior to beginning the service project. Please know that Food & Friends requires a separate Volunteer Agreement form for each volunteer.
