The Infant Classrooms Head Out for a Field Trip!

The infant classrooms prepared to head to the aquarium today, smartly dressed in brand-new Martha's Table t-shirts! Staff, volunteers, and parents prepared the infants for their big trip, and we were lucky enough to capture some cute pics before they headed to the metro! Enjoy!

The Holiday Season at Martha's Table

The Holiday Season is a very special time of year at Martha's Table. The community is focused on helping those in need over the holidays. Even in these rough economic times, we have had an overwhelming amount of support with people contacting us to volunteer and donate in unique ways.
Local neighbors and businesses have helped in many different ways this year and holiday season. 1000's of volunteers have volunteered their time. Staff from PricewaterhouseCoopers volunteer at Martha's Table every Thursday and really helped out during our Winter Holiday Community Dinner and Pantry Thursday's this year. Many individuals have energized their offices to coordinate food drives for Martha's Table's emergency food services. Schools and churches have been collecting hats, gloves, scarves and coats for our clothing distribution center, Martha's Outfitters. Many families are volunteering in their homes by making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches or meat & cheese sandwiches and bringing them into Martha's Table.

Our Children's programs are also celebrating this holiday season. Just last night they performed a play, Christmas Around the World, for their Christmas Pageant.

Recently, Office of Human Resources Management, Benefits, Medical and Worklife Division came to Martha's Table with gifts for all the children in our Daycare program. Pictured above, the children are having an early Christmas thanks to all the generous staff.

The Washington Post put out an article today, highlighting corporations that stepped up to help the neediest in a rough 2009. Note the photo: a longtime volunteer, Linda, sorts linens in Martha's Outfitters.
The Washington Post

We thank everyone who has participated in helping the community this year. Even though so many have generously donated we still need help. We are always in need of non-perishable food items. There is a list posted on our website in the wishlist section. wwwmarthastable.org

We are also in need of volunteer drivers for McKenna's Wagon. Every evening, McKenna's Wagon rolls out to 3 different locations around DC. We could not do this without the help of our dedicated volunteer drivers. Drivers must make a 6 month commitment and have a valid drivers license. The vans leave at 5pm and return around 6:30.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer driver, please contact:
Kimberly Lyons
Development and Volunteer Manager
Martha's Table
202.328.6608 x 232
klyons@marthastable.org

Sheets and Stuff for Squirts!

Martha's Table has been lucky to have the assistance of a new volunteer this past summer. Erin Norcross completed the requirements of her Girl Scout Gold Award Project with Martha's Table.


Erin provided valuable service to the Martha’s Table Child Development Center. She organized a group of volunteers to help her sew much-needed sheets for a new classroom in our Center. These sheets would have cost Martha’s Table hundreds of dollars, and the staff of our Child Development Center commented that the sheets made by Erin and her volunteers fit the cots better, and looked nicer than the other (professionally made and ordered) sheets!

Erin also organized a very successful drive for arts and crafts supplies and reading materials, and donated many wonderful books and art supplies to the classrooms.


Today, Erin was volunteering in the Child Development Center to see the fruits of her labor. She worked with Classroom A as they learned all about the parts of the trees outsides - the branches, the roots, the leaves, and the bark - of course getting their hands-on experience outdoors with the dirt. The above picture is Erin (on the left), along with some kids in Classroom A, and Miss. Camilla.


Thanks for all your help, Erin!

Citations Handed Out to Martha's Table Employees

Martha's Table employees were issued citations by our Pre-School Police this afternoon. They caught all of the troublemakers and covered all the usual hot spots, the cooks in the kitchen for making meals for the children everyday. They caught Debbie and Simone at the front desk for reading to the kids in classroom C. Our President and CEO, Lindsey Buss, was caught by his daughter for working hard in his office. The fine for all...a cookie!

Martha's Table School Yard Garden

This past week Martha's Table volunteers and kids have been hard at work making sure our school yard garden is under way for this years harvest season.

As you see in the two slide-shows below, our volunteers are making sure all of the garden plots are put together with care. After all, these gardens will help feed the children in our programs as well as folks that receive food from our mobile soup kitchen, McKenna's Wagon.







The best part is that the kids from our daycare program got their hands dirty. Children from our pre-school classrooms helped our volunteer and garden engineer, Bobby, plant:

• Marigolds - they act as a natural bug repelant
• Tomato vines
• Russian kale
• Red bell peppers
• and the very speical bean sprouts that started as seeds and planted in plastic cups by the children in our pre-school (please see previous post in May, Planting Seeds!)

Enjoy the photos and feel free to stop by anytime to see the garden in the Martha's Table school yard.

This is for all the Mother's out there!

Martha's Table honored our Daycare and After-School program mothers this past Friday. The celebration included skits, songs and poems.
Here is a song that Classroom A (pre-school) performed for the mothers.


Liliana Campos in our bridge program recited this poem to all the mothers during our luncheon.

Someone

By: Elizabeth Jones
Someone meets me every day when I com in from school or play
Someone smiles and hugs me tight
Someone prays with me at night
Someone has a great big jar where all the nicest cookies are
Someone hears when call
Someone helps me when I fall
Someone always has a kiss -
Now who could be as nice as this?

Who could it be? I am sure you know
It is my mother who loves me so.

Planting Seeds!

The pre-school and toddler classrooms have been learning about planting and growing seeds. They even created craft representations of what their bean sprouts plants would look like after they grow. Please check out the slide show above.

101 Dalmatians

Tuesday our pre-school went on a field trip to the National Presbyterian Church to watch the play, 101 Dalmatians. Sequoya, our pre-school lead teacher, was very impressed, "I was shocked that the performance was by the children from the church, they did an amazing job"

National Volunteer Week - Thank You Volunteers!

Our volunteer program is the backbone of Martha's Table. In the early years, almost 30 years ago, Martha's Table was run entirely by volunteers. Now, they are still a very large part of what we do here at Martha's Table everyday, and are essential to allowing our programs to run smoothly.

Our Food program provides 1200 meals daily on McKenna's Wagon. This is possible through dedicated schools, churches, businesses and community members that come to Martha's Table every morning at 10am. The volunteers help prepare peanut butter and jelly and meat and cheese sandwiches, and they chop vegetables for the soup, all to go out on McKenna's Wagon. In the evening, a new set of volunteers gear up to go out on McKenna's Wagon's vans, and serve over 1200 meals, 65 gallons of soup and hot tea. In 2008, volunteers helped prepare and serve over 500,000 sandwiches for McKenna's Wagon!

Martha's Outfitters, our community thrift store and clothing distribution center relies heavily on committed volunteers. They help take in donations and sort clothing for the store. Every Wednesday and Friday, volunteers help referrals from partner shelters and organizations find things that they need for free. They often go the extra mile - recently a volunteer created a data system to check in referrals more efficiently and track relationships with partner organizations more effectively.

Our Child Development Center is a great place for volunteers to come and spend quality time with our kids ranging in age from 4 months to 4 years old. Volunteers often enjoy reading to the kids, helping them with arts & crafts, going on field trips, helping the teachers feed them lunch, etc.

Volunteering for Martha's Table is not just about service and helping those in need, it is also about education. Martha's Table takes pride in educating our volunteers about poverty, hunger, homelessness and education. These are issues that Martha's Table faces everyday. Our volunteers understand what Martha's Table does and the difference their service makes. Martha's Table volunteers become our greatest advocates and help us build a stronger community. Over 10,000 volunteers served their community through Martha's Table in 2008!

Thank you, volunteers, for helping us make Washington, DC a better place for at-risk children, youth and families.

Hunting for Easter Eggs and Basketballs

Yesterday, the Daycare staged a great Easter Egg hunt all around Martha's Table Daycare area and the playground area. Children from the toddler and pre-school classrooms scoured the grounds searching for little brightly colored plastic eggs filled with surprises.



Some children stayed dedicated and hunted eggs for a full 1/2 hour... others... well, others thought they were on an Easter Basketball Hunt.



A big thank you to the volunteers on Spring Break from upstate New York that helped our daycare find the eggs and place them in their baskets!