Every day, SOME ensures that those experiencing homelessness and poverty can meet their daily needs, regardless of their current financial circumstances. The support of our community makes all this possible, including our long-standing partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank.
SOME Dining Room Services also participate in the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) at the Capitol Area Food Bank. TEFAP operates through the combined efforts of federal, state, local government, and non-governmental agencies to reach the individuals in a community who are the most in need.
The TEFAP program allows SOME to select food from the food bank to distribute to the community to help alleviate food insecurity in the District. Dionta King, Program Manager of Dining Room Services, selects from a wide variety of shelf-stable products, as well as fresh foods such as milk, eggs, and proteins at no cost.
Food insecurity is higher among senior residents than any other age group in our nation’s capital. To combat that problem, the SOME Senior Services and the Capital Area Food Bank have partnered to provide relief for seniors that may be struggling to eat healthy and nutritious meals due to the lack of transportation and money.
Every third Friday of the month, Capital Area Food Bank makes no-contact deliveries of Senior Brown Bags and Grocery Plus Boxes to Kuehner House, SOME’s affordable housing program, located in Ward 8.
- Capital Area Food Bank’s Senior Brown Bag program gives adults 60 and older access to the food they need to stay healthy and strong. Brown Bags are usually filled with produce, pasta, and grains.
- Grocery Plus, a combination of the USDA Commodity Supplemental Food Program and the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, contains various foods such as canned vegetables, cheese, packaged meats, and cartons of juice, and shelf-stable milk.
Brown Bags and Grocery Plus Boxes are distributed to the senior residents at Kuehner House as well as to homebound seniors and SOME Senior Center participants residing in Wards 6, 7, and 8. In 2020, thanks to Capital Area Food Bank, SOME provided 1,248 deliveries to help provide relief for struggling seniors.
“This partnership is so important to the seniors in the DC community,” shared Denise Stoney, SOME Senior Center Wellness Manager.
The partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank is a vital part of serving clients through SOME programming and services. Learn more about our work together by watching this conversation between SOME President and CEO Ralph Boyd and CAFB President and CEO Radha Muthiah.
If you or someone you know lives in Ward 6, 7, or 8 and is interested in becoming a SOME Senior Center participant, please contact Denise Stoney by phone at (202) 235-1492 or via email at dstoney@SOME.org.