 | |
| Founded | September 1980 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Children's Education, Nutrition, Clothing |
| Location |
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Key people | Patty Stonesifer, President and CEO |
Employees | 90 |
| Website | marthastable |
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2021) |
Martha's Table (founded in 1980) is a non-profit organization, an active charity and volunteer center in the Washington, D.C., area. [1] [2]
Martha's Table started in 1980 as a safe place for children to receive free sandwiches and food after school. The organization was named after the Martha of The Bible, a follower and friend of Jesus. While Martha's Table is not a religiously-based organization, the founders Veronica Maz, a social worker, and Father Horace McKenna, a Jesuit Priest, choose the name "Martha’s Table" to represent the dignity in being the one who serves.
Martha's Table gradually grew to address the additional needs of the community through its onsite early childhood education programs and expanded food distribution programs. [3]
Veronica Maz served as the first president and CEO of Martha's Table. Maz was a sociology professor at Georgetown when she began working with Jesuit priest, Horace B. McKenna, in an attempt to turn concerns about poverty in the District into action.
Before founding Martha's Table, Maz worked with McKenna to create S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat), a soup kitchen to help feed the city's destitute citizens, and House of Ruth, a home for abused and neglected women. Maz realized that the city's children were not protected from the violence and drugs plaguing D.C. streets at the time, especially in the dangerous 14th Street corridor. She joined with McKenna once more to found Martha's Table, a haven where children could go after school for a meal and a place to read and play. In 1980, they named the agency Martha's Table. Together, the pair chose the name Martha from the Bible.
Satisfied that Martha's Table had reached organizational stability, Maz departed to pursue other endeavors. She was succeeded by long-time volunteer and change agent, Veronica Parke. Under Parke's leadership, the programs at Martha's Table expanded to serve children along the entire age spectrum, from 3 months to 18 years. The children's program expanded into three areas: a brand new daily program for preschoolers and their mothers focusing on learning and social skills; daily provision of breakfast, lunch, and snack; extensive education and play activities for children both during the school year and summer vacation, as well as activities on weekends. Programs were also created for youth in the critical preteen and teen years.
After nearly two decades of service to Martha's Table, Parke handed over leadership in 2004 to Director of Development Lindsey Buss. A lawyer and lifelong volunteer, Buss expanded enrollment access to students in the Child Development Center, creating a series of parenting workshops, and further developing the after-school program. Divided into three age categories, the after-school programs served as a way for students to focus on literacy and math enhancement, acquire tutoring or homework help, and participate in college-driven workshops.
In April 2013, Martha's Table hired the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Patty Stonesifer, as the new President and CEO. Upon taking her new position, Stonesifer feared what the overall reaction might be. "I was really worried that people would think I was a bit of a carpetbagger—that I just came in from outside and thought I knew everything," she said. [4] Stonesifer joined the organization with the commitment to stand with DC residents in the struggle to end the cycle of poverty. Patty's vision for Martha's Table was illustrated using a model she employed from Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and the Social Sectors. "You have to decide what is real greatness and move that over to the nonprofit side," Stonesifer said. "And for me the biggest form of greatness is knowing what you're trying to do and being very—holding really tightly to that." Stonesifer's focus is on deepening and expanding Martha's Table to become a national model for service-based nonprofits, to help kids succeed in school, help parents contribute to their children's success, and end childhood hunger. Since joining the organization, Martha's Table has added a training center for parents with children enrolled in the organization's education programs, and piloted a mobile market partnership plan with Arcadia foods. The organization has also launched a number of pop up, free grocery markets throughout the city, and has teamed up with the Capital Area Food Bank on its Joyful Food Markets initiative, which brings fresh, healthy produced and groceries to elementary schools in Wards 7 and 8. Martha's Table also began collecting new data and employed new assessments for its data-based performance management.[ citation needed ]
In December 2022, Martha's Table announced that Tiffany Williams would be appointed as the new President and CEO. [5] She was the interim CEO before the appointment, and had previously held leadership roles at Martha's Table for eight years prior, including head of programs. In that role, she architected the design and growth of Martha' Table's offerings, including high-quality education, healthy food, and family supports.
McKenna's Wagon, the organization's mobile food truck, rolls out 365 days a year to feed the District's homeless and hungry population. The Wagon is named after the founder of Martha's Table, Horace McKenna. Volunteers stop at locations around the D.C. metro area and serve hot meals, sandwiches, homemade muffins, fresh fruit and refreshments. [6] McKenna's Wagon also provides holiday meals during Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Churches, synagogues, workplaces, and schools work with Martha's Table to help run McKenna's Wagon by serving meals, donating food, making sandwiches, etc. Martha's Table's emergency food programs provide help to vulnerable populations by providing lunch and dinner daily to hundreds of homeless and low-income people, emergency grocery bags and weekday meals to 300 children and youth.
Since August 2011, Martha's Table has partnered with Target to provide groceries to students and families at eight local elementary schools. Martha's Table also partners with schools in the District of Columbia and Maryland; Garrison Elementary and Powell Elementary in the northwest, Browne Education Campus, Smothers Elementary, and John Burroughs Education Campus in the northeast, Amidon-Bowen in the southwest, Hendley in the southeast and Thomas Stone Elementary in Mount Rainier, Maryland. Similar to the markets offered directly at Martha's Table, these "healthy grocery markets" are based on a choice model system that allows parents to select the nutritious foods their families need.[ citation needed ]
During the school year, Martha's Table serves thousands of families through their "Martha's Market" choice grocery program set up in eight local elementary schools. These markets serve each school once per month, bringing free groceries and the opportunity for children and parents to fill their shopping bags with a variety of fresh produce and shelf-stable foods—all while enjoying cooking demonstrations, tastings, and information tables. On July 1, Martha's Table and Arcadia Foods launched a new weekly mobile farmer's market that offers a combination of free and for-sale produce and groceries to low-income families across the Metro D.C. area. Through this partnership, a bright, green truck full of fresh produce, proteins, and healthy diet staples is setting up pop-up farmer's markets Monday through Friday, twice each day, in eight neighborhoods currently receiving food support from Martha's Table. Because of this new partnership, the weekly mobile market program will provide reliable access to healthy groceries for families in eight locations throughout the summer—when children lose access to free and reduced-price meals at school.[ citation needed ]
Martha's Table is a nationally accredited Child Development Center. It is a fully bilingual program for children ages 3 months to 3 years. The center explores a "Learn through Play" approach with its infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The educational components of the program are broad-based and teach the children about nature, reading, different cultures, science, art and computers. The Child Development Center also provides help to children with special needs through partnerships with other organizations, making sure that each child is either at the appropriate development level or receiving intervention services.[ citation needed ]
Nationally accredited through the National After-School Association, the after-school programs for younger children offers students a range of academic and enrichment opportunities, including tutoring, homework assistance, and developing literacy and math skills.
The enrichment program for elementary and middle school students focus on the following general areas:
Martha's Outfitters is a second-hand thrift store that originally started in 2004 as a clothes closet. Today, the store serves roughly 50,000 customers a year, generating more $425,000 in revenue. Martha's Outfitters also offers brand-name and vintage men's, women's and children's clothing, shoes, jewelry, housewares, accessories and linens at affordable prices. Revenue from purchases are dedicated to the education, food and clothing programs. Martha's Outfitters also offers a free clothing distribution program to clients referred by one of the 100 agency partners throughout the Washington, D.C., area, allowing them access to free casual and work clothing, interview attire, housewares, and linens.[ citation needed ]
Martha's Table has been granted accreditation status through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for their Child Development Center.
Charity Navigator gave Martha's Table a four-star rating in 2017. [7]
A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops.
Patricia Q. Stonesifer was the interim CEO of The Washington Post and serves on the corporate board of Amazon. She began her career in various executive roles at Microsoft before becoming the founding CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She previously served as the President and CEO of Martha's Table, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit that provides community-based solutions to poverty.
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act is a 1946 United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. The program was established as a way to prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses, while at the same time providing food to school-age children. It was named after Richard Russell Jr., signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1946, and entered the federal government into schools' dietary programs on June 4, 1946.
The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (CNA) is a United States federal law (act) signed on October 11, 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act was created as a result of the "years of cumulative successful experience under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to help meet the nutritional needs of children." The National School Lunch Program feeds 30.5 million children per day. NSLP was operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools in 2007. The Special Milk Program, functioning since 1954, was extended to June 30, 1970 and incorporated into the act. The act also provided Federal funding assistance towards non-food purchases for school equipment.
A school meal is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world offer various kinds of school meal programs, and altogether, these are among the world's largest social safety nets. An estimated 380 million school children around the world receive meals at their respective schools. The extent of school feeding coverage varies from country to country, and as of 2020, the aggregate coverage rate worldwide is estimated to be 27%.
Feeding America is a United States–based non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. Forbes ranks it as the largest U.S. charity by revenue. Feeding America was known as America's Second Harvest until August 31, 2008.
Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced, processed, distributed, purchased, or provided. Food policies are designed to influence the operation of the food and agriculture system balanced with ensuring human health needs. This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques, marketing, availability, utilization, and consumption of food, in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives. Food policy can be promulgated on any level, from local to global, and by a government agency, business, or organization. Food policymakers engage in activities such as regulation of food-related industries, establishing eligibility standards for food assistance programs for the poor, ensuring safety of the food supply, food labeling, and even the qualifications of a product to be considered organic.
So Others Might Eat (SOME) is a nonprofit organization that provides services to assist those dealing with poverty and homelessness in Washington, D.C. The organization provides affordable housing, job training, counseling and other healthcare services, and daily needs such as food and clothing to the poor and homeless. It spends the largest portion of its annual budget on affordable housing, with a majority of its residents recovering from addiction. SOME describes its mission as helping "our vulnerable neighbors in Washington, DC, break the cycle of homelessness through our comprehensive and transformative services".
A Campus Kitchen is an on-campus student service program that is a member of the nonprofit organization, The Campus Kitchens Project. At a Campus Kitchen, students use on-campus kitchen space and donated food from their cafeterias to prepare and deliver nourishing meals to their communities.
Sedano's Supermarkets is the United States’ largest Hispanic retailer and largest Hispanic-owned supermarket chain. With headquarters in Miami-Dade County. Sedano's employs approximately 3,000 associates and operates 35 stores across Florida in Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, and Osceola counties. Sedano's is also the largest member of Associated Grocers of Florida, a wholesale grocery food cooperative. In 2020, Sedano's Supermarkets was named Food and Wine’s 20 Best Regional Supermarket Chains of All Time.
FreshDirect is an American online grocery company and among the first enterprises to sell and deliver perishable foods to consumers without maintaining a retail operation. It offers its services via a website and mobile app.
In New York City, there is an extensive water supply system that supports several programs and infrastructure pertaining to the city's food supply. City officials, agencies, and organizations cooperate with rural farmers to grow food more locally, as well as protect waterways in the New York metropolitan area. The New York City Department of Education operates a school-time and summertime breakfast/lunch program. The city is also deprived of supermarkets in several neighborhoods, and the city government has addressed the problem by allowing extra street vendors to operate. To encourage food safety, the government also operates a restaurant-grading system that it introduced in 2010. The various food programs have made the city a model for food systems internationally.
Garden-based learning (GBL) encompasses programs, activities and projects in which the garden is the foundation for integrated learning, in and across disciplines, through active, engaging, real-world experiences that have personal meaning for children, youth, adults and communities in an informal outside learning setting. Garden-based learning is an instructional strategy that utilizes the garden as a teaching tool.
Dairy Council of California provides free nutrition education programs to California children and adults through teachers and health professionals. In addition, the Dairy Council of California provides a Mobile Dairy Classroom, a free outdoor assembly with a live cow. The organization also provides consumers with nutrition information through a website, HealthyEating.org.
Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood house is a 103-year-old comprehensive social services organization based in East St. Louis, Illinois. It is a United Way organization and is a United Methodist settlement house operating 22 programs at five sites in the Metro East St. Louis Metro East.
Hunger in the United States of America affects millions of Americans, including some who are middle class, or who are in households where all adults are in work. The United States produces far more food than it needs for domestic consumption—hunger within the U.S. is caused by some Americans having insufficient money to buy food for themselves or their families. Additional causes of hunger and food insecurity include neighborhood deprivation and agricultural policy. Hunger is addressed by a mix of public and private food aid provision. Public interventions include changes to agricultural policy, the construction of supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods, investment in transportation infrastructure, and the development of community gardens. Private aid is provided by food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, and food rescue organizations.
School meals are provided free of charge, or at a government-subsidized price, to United States students from low-income families. These free or subsidized meals have the potential to increase household food security, which can improve children's health and expand their educational opportunities. A study of a free school meal program in the United States found that providing free meals to elementary and middle school children in areas characterized by high food insecurity led to increased school discipline among the students.
Food Lifeline is a non-profit organization that supplies food to different food banks across Western Washington. Food Lifeline is responsible for repackaging and delivering food to 275 different organizations that distribute meals to the Western Washington population. Out of all the food distributed to these different organizations, 30% of the meals end up coming directly from Food Lifeline alone. Food Lifeline is part of a nationwide non-profit called Feeding America and assists in collecting food that would otherwise go to waste.
A meal kit is a subscription service–foodservice business model where a company sends customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially prepared food ingredients and recipes to prepare home-cooked meals. Services that send pre-cooked meals are called meal delivery services. This subscription model has been cited as an example of the personalization of the food and beverage industry.
This is a list of food desert issues and solutions by country.