WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) - Thirty-two years ago on Martin Luther King's birthday, the largest non-profit food bank in the Washington opened its doors. Washingtonian Magazine has named the Capital Area Food Bank on of the best charities in the city.
Lynn Brantley, Executive Director, Capital Area Food Bank, comments, "I don't say celebrating, I say commemorating, these are tough times. One in two Americans are low income or poor, 50% of the children that live in DC don't get an adequate diet, one in four children in Prince George's county don't get a decent diet. These are times when so many of our neighbors are struggling".
Lynn Brantley is known as the Mother of the Food Bank. Her co-founder Rev. Clark Lebenstien is the Exectuive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington. He recalls, "We thought that the food bank was on board to end hunger, and instead the food bank has just grown and grown and grown."
The food bank distributes 30 million pounds of food annually to youth programs, nursing homes, shelters, and churches. More than 700 agencies are supplied food by the Bank.
Brantley says, "We have a core of people here in our community who help to save us over a million dollars a year in terms of our expenses, it's the sorting of food and putting everything together to make it happen.
In June the Capital Area Food Bank will move to a new building, three times as large, just a quarter mile away. Organizers say they will be able to do an even better job in the new location.