Please save the date of 11.19.2022 for GiveBack Saturday.   Our goal is to provide over 4,000 food baskets to needy families in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.  We have confirmed our distribution sites in Maryland and Virginia and we hope to finalize the Washington DC location(s) very soon.

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Hours before the sun rose on Saturday, the 16th annual Project GiveBack Thanksgiving Food Distribution was underway.  At 3 a.m., Project Giveback founder Ransom Miller, logistics coordinator Rick McLean and board member Patrick Stewart were at a food warehouse in Hyattsville, MD, with three empty 24-foot trucks.  By 4:30 a.m., all three trucks, loaded with enough food for more than 1000 families, were pulling up to Bell Mulitcultural High School in Columbia Heights, headquarters for this year’s event. They were met by a team of volunteers which includes a large number of members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, who have made it a tradition to man the 5 a.m. shift that unloads the food trucks.  By 6 a.m., the walls of Bell High’s cafeteria were lined high with boxed stacks of food; chicken and sweet potatoes, fish fillets, sausage and beef patties, stuffing, celery, and onions, apples and oranges, and 1000 turkeys.   “Everything worked like clockwork,” said Project GiveBack founder Ransom Miller. “This used to be just me and people who knew me, and now it’s people who don’t even know who I am.  It shows that other people have taken ownership and invited their friends and family to be part of it.  That’s what you want, you want everyone to feel like they own it.”  It was an impressive mass of food, even to Project GiveBack volunteer like Samantha Hawkins, who started volunteering 15 years ago, when the program was distributing food to six families.  But as the program has grown, so has the need.  “We only have a certain amount of slots, and we were able to assist a lot more people this year” Hawkins said.  “But with the economy being the way it is, I got a lot of email requests this year.  We got several requests where both parents had lost a job.” By 6:30, more than 600 Project GiveBack volunteers were filling boxes with enough food for two weeks, plus Thanksgiving dinner, for distribution from Bell High’s cafeteria.   “We had people volunteering to deliver meals after they finished packing boxes,” said Project GiveBack media coordinator Wendy Gray. 

From Bell, food deliveries went out across the region; 100 boxes to La Clinica Del Pueblo Community Health Center.  One hundred boxes to Northern Virginia.  One hundred twenty five boxes to military families at Anacostia Naval Station.  Landover, Md., a joint delivery to the Kentland and Glenarden recreation centers.  Fifty boxes to the Barry Farms housing project in Southeast DC.   “There’s no organization like this,” said Patrick Stewart, whose commitment to Project GiveBack began 5 years ago, as a volunteer delivering individual meals to families in need.  Stewart now a Project GiveBack board member, spent most of the day doing bulk deliveries.  Stewart’s day ended with a more personal mission.  When a volunteer returned a box to the distribution center after being unable to deliver it, Stewart raised his hand, and delivered the food to an elderly woman in Northeast Washington.  “She was so appreciative,” Stewart said. “That’s what attracted me to Project GiveBack.”  The program’s founder, Ransom Miller, has seen the food distribution program grow beyond his wildest expectations, but his visions are keeping pace. Sixteen years ago, Project GiveBack delivered food to six families.  Two years ago, the program served 500 families, growing to 900 last year, and 1000 in 2010.  Miller has found that “the more you put yourself out there, the more stories you hear about people in need.  He imagines the effort expanding to Baltimore, Virginia, and points beyond.  “The more you put yourself out there, the more stories you hear,” said Miller.  “It would be cool would be if people did what we’re doing everywhere.”

(Project GiveBack is still accepting donations to help cover the costs of the 2010 Thanksgiving Food Distribution event.  Project GiveBack is currently planning an effort to distribute toys and age appropriate books to low income children over the Christmas Holiday in the DC Area.  For more information visit www.projectgiveback.org)

Visit WTOP.com to see its coverage of the event. Search on keyword giveback or click the following link: http://wtop.com/?sid=2126221&nid=25

As we gear up for the final push to solicit financial and volunteer support for the Project GiveBack 16th Annual Thanksgiving Food Distribution I began to reflect on our journey which began in 1995 in the break room of consulting firm Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio and Associates. That year we collected money from colleagues and purchased Thanksgiving Food Baskets for six families the Saturday before the holiday centered on giving thanks. We leveraged the compassionate hearts of those who were doing well financially against those who had fell upon hard times. For the past 16 years, the focus of soliciting individuals, corporations and organizations and providing resources to the neediest among us has been a primary focus for Project GiveBack. Since that time, we have watched our economy dip and dodge around, but since 2007, we have witnessed a vicious surge in the amount of families that find themselves in a position of need. Early on, we depended heavily on the local and federal poverty agencies to provide family lists, but in recent years we have developed partnerships with like minded organizations, churches, homeless shelters and other groups who have proven to be efficient in identifying people in need.

Several of the individuals and families we serve deal with issues most of us cannot even comprehend. Do I buy groceries or pain medicine? Do I pay my electric bill or buy metro card so I can get to work? Do I buy diapers for my child or assist my mother with her car note. These dilemmas are real and far too common in our community. Unfortunately, these issues are not new to us. The most compelling phenomenon we have noticed is the increasing number of situations where a faithful Project GiveBack supporter finds him/herself in a position of need. This is a typical representation of what several community groups and who service underprivileged individuals and families. The evolving portrait of poverty is a true reality. The faces of those dealing with poverty issues are becoming more familiar. Your neighbor, your cousin, even your coworker could be masking their poverty due to the unfair and downright cruel stereotypes that plague poverty stricken individuals. Most people who find themselves in this position attempt to hide it for fear of embarrassment from their peers and sometimes even family. Though there are plenty of cases where shiftlessness and laziness have led to poverty conditions, we are increasingly seeing highly educated/skilled people in this unchartered unprivileged territory. Job loss and reduction in work hours due to company cutbacks and budgetary issues are obvious reasons for this evolution. However the growing underemployed population should be considered in this evolving portrait as well.

As a young man, I often saw social ills and pontificated on ways to cure them. In my short 40 years, I have learned that some remedies are beyond my span of control. On a grand scale, poverty is one of those tough issues that men and women much smarter, more enthusiastic, more ingenious, and more resourceful than I have been unable to fully address. While we may not be able to fully address this issue, WE CAN (and will) Make a Difference in the lives of some dealing with poverty and hunger in our area. On November 20, 2010 hundreds of volunteers will take over Bell Multicultural High School in Washington DC in an effort to provide food baskets to 1,000 needy families in the DC, Maryland and Virginia Area. It’s not too late to join our honorable quest. Visit www.projectgiveback.org to see how you can volunteer and make a charitable donation to this effort.