1. family and parenting

Our Vision & Strategies
Healthy Start
For low-income children age birth through
elementary school, we will provide the academic,
health and life supports to ensure a great start to
a successful life. Our work will include intensive,
full-day early childhood programming in the earliest
years followed by dedicated out-of-school-time
academic and social supports during
elementary school years.
Healthy Eating
For over 17,000 low-income elementary school
children attending over 50 elementary schools across
the District, we plan to provide the healthy food access
and healthy eating knowledge and motivation to
eliminate hunger and create more joyful connection
to food and eating. We will do this through a
multi-partner initiative led by Martha’s Table and
Capital Area Food Bank to bring healthy groceries via
Joyful Food Markets to every public and charter elementary school in Wards
7 & 8 by 2018 – while also maintaining our current 15 Martha’s Markets across
D.C. since we know hunger pervades all Wards of the District. We will continue
to offer prepared meals to the homeless and hungry via McKenna’s Wagon at 4
locations (Martha’s Table and three downtown stops) and our quality children’s
meals for all students enrolled in our on-site education programs.
Healthy Connections
As our children progress through middle school,
high school, and college, we will support them with
service leadership and work opportunities to help
them mature into their future as learners, earners,
and leaders. At the same time, we will work with the
parents of Healthy Start students to become family
visionaries and leaders on their family’s path toward
a self-defined vision of success. Through our Martha’s
Outfitters community thrift stores, we will equip family leaders with free
clothing for employment opportunities and offer learning and earning
opportunities for older youth.
UW #8445 • CFC #29262
Dear Friend,
Last year brought successes, dramatic growth, and big
decisions for Martha’s Table. Our commitment to partnering
with low-income children, families and individuals as they
work to lead successful lives remains as fierce as ever.
2015 marks the 35th Anniversary of Martha’s Table’s founding and
the launch of our efforts to Set the Table for our next 35 years of
impact. Our Healthy Start, Healthy Connections and Healthy Eating
strategies will guide our work to equip children, families and
neighbors with the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty.
We couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for standing with
us – and more importantly, with the children and families we
support every day. I hope you enjoy reading more about the
successes you made possible in 2014 and how you can help
us make 2015 our most impactful year yet.
What can you do to guarantee success? Join us by raising your
voice in support of the strategies that help working families make
ends meet, consider donating to Martha’s Table to ensure our
children receive the highest quality academic preparation for
school and families receive healthy groceries, and share your
time by signing up to volunteer. Together, we can increase
our impact on hunger and the challenges of poverty in 2015!
Yours in Service,
Patty Stonesifer
President & CEO
2114 14th Street , NW
•
Washington, DC 20009
•
202-328-6608
marthastable.org
Martha’s Table Top 4 in 2014
More Markets, More Fruits and Veggies
In 2014, we scaled up our Healthy Eating efforts
significantly, adding TWO new healthy markets
in underserved neighborhoods and guaranteeing
over 40% fresh produce at EVERY Martha’s Market
across the District! That’s more apples, carrots,
and fresh greens for even more hungry DC neighbors – all thanks to
the support of partners like you. Thank you for helping us bring joyful,
community-centered healthy markets to low-income children
and families.
What’s next . . . Building on this strong growth, we have bold plans
of adding even more Joyful Food Markets in 2015 in partnership with
Capital Area Food Bank! We already launched THREE new Martha’s
Markets in January – at two elementary schools with over 800 low-income
students and at one community center in a high-needs neighborhood
in Ward 8 – and that’s just the beginning! With your support, we hope to
bring markets to all public and charter elementary schools in Wards 7
and 8 by 2018 – with the potential of supporting the families of 15,000
students with healthy groceries in those two Wards alone!
Focusing on Family Success
A huge milestone in 2014 was the opening of
our new Family Success Center, which connects
parents and family leaders to the supports,
resources, knowledge and opportunities they
need to boost family success and stability.
Embarking on a two-generation approach and recognizing that every
parent is the key leader in their child’s success, we began building deeper
relationships with parents and partnering with them through parenting
groups, skills workshops, and social activities that encourage positive
family interaction. We also hired a phenomenal bilingual Early Childhood
Specialist to lead our new infant home visiting program.
What’s next . . . Every child relies on their parents and guardians as
their first teacher, making parent engagement programs a critical piece of
every child’s education. Building stronger families and helping parents be
more prepared does not happen overnight. We are dedicated to the families we serve and eager to deepen our parent engagement and family
success programs in 2015. Your support makes certain that the doors
to our Family Success Center are open so that parents can access the
knowledge, resources, tools, and information they need to achieve
long-term stability for their families.
Raising the Bar on
Reading & Writing
We are fiercely committed to providing
high-quality academic supports so our students
and little ones can become learners, earners and
leaders - and boy did we prove it in 2014! We
began a close partnership with AppleTree Institute (dedicated to closing
the achievement gap before kindergarten) to build a strong curriculum for
our youngest learners. We also hired an Academic Master Coach to work
with students and teachers to build evidence-based and assessment-based
academic plans, as well as a Literacy Coach, who has already raised our
students’ reading scores and improved our teachers’ reading lessons.
What’s next . . . Your gift today will help us build on the progress
we have made in instructional supports and increased literacy efforts,
allowing us to move all of our students to grade-appropriate reading
levels so they can compete with peers from more affluent families.
We will continue to increase the quality of our programming to ensure
the children who visit us have a Healthy Start.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
A shout-out to our supporters
We know that none of our successes are possible
without our dedicated community of volunteers,
donors, and partners. We were BLOWN AWAY by
the outpouring of support in 2014. We saw record
levels of community engagement across the board - volunteers serving
meals on McKenna’s Wagon, cutting veggies in our “Food Prep” room,
and sorting clothing donations in Martha’s Outfitters; donors bringing us
clothing and food items, as well as stretching to give just a little more
financially; and many supporters joining us at our community events,
including Taste of Spring, the inaugural One Pot Suppers evening, our
Community Harvest Dinner, and our Sips and Suppers weekend. Many
thanks for all that you do to ensure that Martha’s Table can help those
who need us most!
What’s next . . . We need your continued support now more than ever
as we enter our 35th year of service and think strategically about our
next 35 years of impact. With more Martha’s Markets, a greater investment
in education and literacy, and more families seeking our programs, we
will be relying on you yet again to help us support low-income children,
families, and individuals working so hard to lead successful, healthy lives.