The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
For Food Justice DMV, a growing movement to feed 9,000 families across three jurisdictions, began with a young father from Central America.
Denise Woods met Oscar in 2019, while volunteering with Sanctuary DMV – a mutual aid organization that operates a hotline for migrants who need help getting to ICE court hearings.
For thousands of migrants and asylum seekers across the DMV, these regular check-ins with ICE officials determine whether or not they can continue to live in the United States. In these situations, something as trivial as missing a bus can be life-altering.
On one such occasion, Oscar shared with Woods how he struggled to find transportation to his ICE appointment in Baltimore – more than a two-hour drive from his home in Northern Virginia. Fearing that he would be deported if he missed his check-in, Oscar paid $150 to take a taxi to his appointment. Later that night, when his 8-year daughter asked why they had no food, Oscar explained that he had made a choice between feeding his family and staying in the country.
A year later, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country, Woods recognized the impact this would have on Oscar and dozens of other Sanctuary DMV families who were already living on the edge.
“My fellow volunteers and I realized how devastating this would be for the families we served,” Woods shared. “So overnight, we decided – with no training or background experience in food distribution – to change our accompaniment hotline to a food hotline.”
A young volunteer helps his mother at a distribution in Hyattsville, Maryland
The group called themselves Food Justice DMV and quickly transitioned to provide deliveries of food, diapers, and other essentials for anyone who called the hotline – initially about 200 migrant families.
As the economic impact of the pandemic worsened, word about the hotline spread quickly. Within weeks, Food Justice DMV had tripled its reach to serve more than 600 families.
Three years later, the group currently serves more than 9,000 families with weekly deliveries and distributions in Virginia on Tuesdays, Hyattsville, Maryland on Thursdays, and DC on Saturdays. They are one of the only programs in our region that continues to deliver food to families, despite their massive service area.
When asked why the need has continued to grow, Woods pointed to a number of factors – including the ongoing migrant bus crisis that has brought more than 10,000 asylum seekers to our region over the past year and a half – in addition to those who continue to struggle due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
“For decades, our asylum system has left thousands of families living on the edge,” Woods shared. “It can take up to seven years for an asylum seeker just to get a work permit. During that time frame, those that may qualify for assistance or resources often can’t access the help they need due to economic or language barriers.”
“People who are asylum seekers or migrants without documentation have always had to live in the shadows,” she added. “Doing whatever they can just to get by. Food Justice DMV is one of the few organizations stepping up to fill that gap.”
Recognizing the need to empower and uplift these communities, Food Justice DMV sought to meet people where they are at. They partnered with community leaders to conduct a needs assessment survey to identify what specific needs were. They established a Spanish Facebook page to facilitate information-sharing around community resources including free legal, medical, dental, and vaccination clinics and expanded their distribution services to include formula, diapers, and wipes.
Food Justice DMV also recognized early on, the importance and power of centering community voices in the work.
“Currently, we have 22 Black and Brown – Haitian, Nigerian, and Latino – community leaders who are partnering with us in this work,” Woods shared. “These are phenomenal leaders who are the backbone and the North star for the work that we do.”
“We recognize that our community will only get stronger when we as a society open the doors and let them lead – providing the resources, the support, and the empowerment they need to thrive.”
Food Justice DMV also established partnerships with organizations such as local churches, Capital Area Food Bank, DC Central Kitchen, Ayuda, and others to provide more resources to community leaders and the families they serve.
One of those partnerships was with The Community Foundation, who became the Fiscal Sponsor for Food Justice DMV in 2022. As a component fund at The Community Foundation, Food Justice DMV was able to receive funding from both individual and institutional donors resulting in over $200,000 raised during FY2022. The Community Foundation also provides critical financial and administrative infrastructure that allows Food Justice DMV’s staff and volunteers to devote more time and energy to serving their community.
“We are blown away by the level of support we receive from The Community Foundation,” Woods shared. “The service and expertise they provide is truly a life-saver for our organization.”
The partnership also reflects The Community Foundation’s commitment to invest in community-led organizations that empower Black and Brown communities. Community leaders of color make up half of Food Justice DMV’s leadership circle and play a key role in planning and orchestrating food distributions – ensuring that distributions are both equitable and culturally sensitive to community needs. They also play a key role in facilitating advocacy and activism to empower their fellow community members to push for systems change.
“There are so many incredible people we serve who can’t contribute their talents and full potential because our current system restricts them to focusing on their most basic needs,” Woods shared. “By enabling our communities to advocate for systems-change, we hope to one day achieve true Food Justice here in the DMV.”
The Community Foundation is proud to serve as a Fiscal Sponsor for Food Justice DMV. For more information, visit www.foodjusticedmv.org.