Order Your Holiday Pies and Support Food & Friends

Food and Friends is teaming up with one of the best bakeries in the city, Bread and Chocolate, for what may be the biggest bake sale the District has ever seen. You can order your Harvest Apple Pie, Picture Perfect Pumpkin Pie, or Bread & Chocolate's signature Chocolate Torte and pick it up at one of several convenient locations across town right in time for Thanksgiving. In addition to choosing Thanksgiving pies for you, your friends and family, this is the perfect opportunity to not only put meals on the table for thousands facing life-challenging illnesses. And if you want, you can even order an extra pie to be donated to Food and Friends clients for their Thanksgiving meal. Food & Friends supplies meals and groceries to 1,350 people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses. This is a great way to show your support. I just ordered a pumpkin pie. To order your pie, click here now. And one quick side note, if you're thinking about volunteering on Thanksgiving Day at Food and Friends, you better sign up quick. I saw Raul from Food & Friends at the DC Fights Back Resource Day, and he said volunteer slots are filling up fast. To find out more about volunteering, click here.

An Evening of Food & Friends at Crate and Barrel: December 5th, 2007

This December, more than 1,000 of Food & Friends' supporters will kick-off their holiday shopping at Crate and Barrel and have 10% of their in-store purchases donated directly to Food & Friends. This evening of shopping is filled with exciting door prizes and tastings from some of our favorite restaurants. Sponsorships and Tickets will be available in the fall. Established in 1988, Food & Friends was founded to provide home-delivered meals and friendship to people living with HIV/AIDS. These services remain at the core of their mission: caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses by providing home-delivered, freshly-prepared meals, groceries and nutrition counseling.

Bikers Hit the Road for Food & Friends

Over 60 folks got on their bicycles for a weekend of cycling throughout Maryland's Eastern Shore to benefit Food and Friends July 12th through 15th. Some great pictures from the weekend, including the one shown here, are posted on Moose's Flickr Page. I don't know the grand total, but the the teams raised over $150,000 online for Food and Friends, an organization which delivers delivers meals and groceries to more than 1,350 people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses in our community. Congrats to the top fundraiser Christopher Wolf, who raised $12,925 online. And congrats to all the riders and volunteer crew members that made this event possible.

Knitting for Our Neighbors July 11th

Food & Friends is offering free knit & crochet classes, taught by volunteer instructors, to create scarves or hats to be delivered to Food & Friends clients this coming winter. Classes are held the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 6:30-8:30pm at Food & Friends, 219 Riggs Road, NE. The next class is July 11th. Instruction is Free. Please bring $5.00 for materials, or your own worsted weight yarn and knitting needles or crochet hook. If you would like to sign up for knitting lessons, or need more information, please contact knitting networker, Michelle Strange, at michelle64@hotmail.com, or join the yahoo group, Knitting Neighbors for more information. Donations of knit goods and supplies are also accepted.

Mayor Adrian Fenty to Deliver 10 Millionth Food & Friends Meal

Join special guest, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, and Food & Friends' clients, volunteers, board, staff and supporters as they commemorate the 10 millionth Food & Friends meal. Mayor Adrian Fenty will package Food & Friends' 10 millionth meal and deliver it to a Food & Friends client. The event takes place Tuesday, April 17 from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. at Food & Friends, 219 Riggs Road, NE. Shuttle Service Available from Fort Totten Metro Station. To RSVP, click here

Today's ACTION Lunch

Today I hosted the monthly ACTION Lunch. Laura Otolski, a diettician from Food & Friends, did an amazing job covering the topic of nutritional issues for people living with HIV. We even tried to make the food a little healthier, this time with Whole Foods catering the event. The menu included smoked salmon wraps, chicken wraps, and veggie wraps, plenty of fresh cut fruits and vegetables, and tabouli. I also surveyed folks who attended to see what topics they'd like to see us talk about in the future. I still have to go through all the surveys but a preliminary look .... On the HIV prevention side, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) research and circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy appear to be hot topics. On the treatment side the two hot topics appear to be HIV and depression, and the relationship between HIV and the use of tobacco, alcohol, and party drugs. The next two ACTION lunches, however, are already planned. In April Dr. Barney Graham will be speaking about HIV Vaccine Research, and in May Dr. Fred Gordin will be give a presentation entitled "When is it SMART to Start HIV Treatment?". Please take a moment and click here to download the flyer for these events and be sure to post it up at your church, your agency, your grocery store, and wherever you think people may be interested. Oh ... and more pictures from the event are posted on the Fight HIV in DC Flickr Page. I've also had requests to put Laura's presentation online - so I will check with her and see if we can make that happen. Now go out to a nice restaurant and support Food & Friends at Dining Out for Life tonight! As for me, if I still have the energy, I'm going to tonight's CPG Meeting.

Inspired Yoga Lends a Hand to Food and Friends

Throughout the month of February, Food and Friends will be the beneficiary of Inspired Yoga's community classes. These classes are taught on a rotating basis by teachers who are new to teaching. Community Classes are open for all experience levels and are offered on a donation basis. Pay what you can or use your Inspired Yoga class pass. 50 percent of all proceeds will be given to Food and Friends all month long. These classes are meant to encourage and enable anyone interested in yoga to experience its many gifts while helping others. Learn more about Inspired Yoga's Community Classes by visiting www.inspiredyoga.com/community.htm

Dining Out for Life: March 8th

The Food & Friends annual Dining Out for Life takes place on March 8, 2007. 150 restaurants in the area will donate a portion of their sales to Food & Friends. So, mark your calendar NOW as you'll want to make sure you don't miss out on this chance to leave dinner (or lunch) having made a difference in the lives of our neighbors facing some of life's most difficult challenges! Look for additional details to be posted on the Food & Friends Website in the future.