Giant Food Impact Stories 2022

2022 Impact Stories

AS TOLD BY NONPROFITS

of the Giant Food Community Bag & Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs

INSPIRING AND IMPORTANT WORK

Since late 2021, the PS It Matters Nonprofit Engagement Team has conducted interviews with over 70 nonprofits that have benefited from Bags 4 My Cause or Bloomin’ 4 Good. The resulting Impact Stories highlight each nonprofit’s mission, services they provide and the needs they fill. Learning from these organizations firsthand is inspiring and emphasizes the importance of the Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs and impact on the local Giant Food community.

Enclosed are four stories of nonprofits that have benefited from the Giant Food Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs. More stories can be found on the Giant Food Program Website: giantfood.2givelocal.com/stories

In 2023, the Nonprofit Engagement Team will continue conversations with nonprofits creating additional Impact Stories—at least one a month—and feedback calls with 200 to 300 organizations. These calls will focus on how nonprofits interact with the program, the marketing tools they use, additional tools they would like to see on the Program Website and how the Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs fit into their overall fundraising strategy. We plan to adjust our outreach to nonprofits based on feedback and report overall findings in early 2024.

We look forward to continuing the success of the Giant Food Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs in 2023. We truly value your partnership and the impact we have together on local nonprofits in your banner’s footprint. Thank you for contributing to the positive outcomes for Giant Food, PS It Matters and the local community!

A place of restoration and hope.

FREDERICK

RESCUE MISSION

For Partnership Development Director Jasmine Sneed it’s all about relationships, whether with the homeless, hungry or addicted or with individual donors, business partners, and fellow nonprofits. Building relationships has enabled Frederick Rescue Mission to meet the needs of its burgeoning community for almost 60 years. Giant Food has supported the Frederick Rescue Mission through the Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs.

Tell us about the Frederick Rescue Mission.

The Rescue Mission has been successfully serving for almost six decades with a foundation of support that began in the evangelical church. It is very much Christ-centered, but we serve everyone, whatever their beliefs are.

Our mission is to change lives now and for eternity. We provide residential programs to those experiencing homelessness or chemical addiction, food to the hungry, clothing and personal care items to those in need, and connection within the community through relationships.

The Rescue Mission property was built in 1875; it was the Frederick County Jail and the attached sheriff’s mansion, an historic manor home. The property was turned over to the Rescue Mission in the 1980s when the county relocated to a more modern facility. It’s gone through some substantial renovations, but we utilize the structural elements of the original facility. For example, the dorms of our Changed Life Recovery Program for the men who are here on property, are former jail cells. So, what was used as a place of punishment and retribution is now a place of restoration and hope.

Since the beginning, we have been serving breakfast and lunch to the community 365 days a year. In 2018, we were blessed with a successful capital campaign, and we renovated the 1928 kitchen into a very modern, fantastic kitchen with a dining room that can seat 150. We have full-time kitchen staff, and we also have volunteers who come in and help and serve those breakfast and lunches.

What started in the 60s with a tiny, little “bread aisle” has evolved all these years later into moving 2.5 million pounds of food through our food distribution network every year. That’s a combination of people coming on site here in downtown Frederick to receive fresh and nonperishable groceries and what goes out to our food bank partners around the county. Frederick County is very large geographically. We want to make sure that our food bank partners in the farthest reaches of the county have resources and can meet the needs in their communities.

What

sets your organization apart from others in your community?

We have other organizations in the community that are meeting needs in the homeless space, and we partner with them. Frederick County is very robust in its nonprofit services. We are an incredibly tight knit giving community and we’re careful not to duplicate efforts. Whereas we do breakfast and lunch, another agency does dinner.

No one else is supplying as much food to our community food banks as the Rescue Mission. You might have a smaller community food bank that is doing drives with the local school or the local churches or neighborhoods. And that is so fantastic. We need all these organizations that meet specific community needs, but we supply additional food items to them. We also supply churches. You may have churches doing community outreach through their own avenues, but they don’t have the resources to obtain all the food items on their own. We’ll supply a church in a farther-reaching part of the community with

pre-made bags that they can then give out to their distribution. Nobody’s doing that on the scale that we’re doing. We’re doing a lot of it on our own, but a lot gets partnered out. And because Frederick is so tight knit, our businesses, like Giant Food, partner with us to make these things happen because it’s all about relationships.

We are the only Christ-centered recovery program for men in the county. There are other recovery programs, but we’re the only one with this particular model. We also fill a niche in women’s services. There’s no other place where a homeless single woman can go to receive housing. There’s a family shelter, but we’re meeting a niche for single homeless women.

And I haven’t even mentioned our Rescued Treasures clothing program. We take donated clothing, and our guests can come in and shop for free. You could get outfitted for a new job or work at no charge. If you’re looking for work pants and boots or shirts, for example, we’re going to have that for you. It’s a whole separate program run by a couple of my colleagues with our wonderful shelter program. No one else is doing that for free.

Tell us a story that clearly illustrates the good work you are doing.

Guy Mutchler, our Director of Food Services and Facilities, recently met a woman in the parking lot as he was leaving for the day. She hurried up to him carrying a small bag containing two boxes of ready-to-prepare macaroni and cheese. “Sir, I’d like to make a food donation,” she said. “I know this isn’t much, but it’s all I have, and I just feel like I should give back to the place that

provided for me when I was in need.”

As they chatted there in the parking lot, Guy learned that she had received groceries throughout the year at the Food Distribution Center. “This woman gave everything she had without regard to the cost,” says Guy.

We have such an abundance because of the generosity of our donors that a mom with five teen-aged children, for example, can take as much as she needs for her family. The way I look at it is that the needy wouldn’t be served without the Rescue Mission, doing what we do. But we could not do what we do without partners like Giant Food and like the individuals who make us the conduit. We get the joy of being a conduit, but it all

make us the conduit.

comes from contributions, whether it’s a loaf of bread or a thousand-dollar check. Those are the only ways we can do what we do. We get the fun of giving it out, but we really are as human beings all in this together.

What is your greatest achievement or contribution to the community?

It’s tough to choose one thing. When you look at the longevity of the work of the Rescue Mission, almost 60 years of consistency and longer than I’ve been alive, frankly, and that it has carried on and not diminished, but expanded, it’s phenomenal.

…we could not do what we do without partners like Giant Food and like the individuals who

Our county has changed significantly in 60 years. We were very much a rural, very small community, but due to urbanization from Washington, DC, in particular, Frederick is thriving, and the population has quadrupled. The community has continued to support us so well that we’re able to meet today’s needs. That’s saying a lot.

whether it’s volunteering to pack a food bag or to serve a meal, or to teach a class, or to work in our reception office and give a pair of socks to a homeless person who comes in. People can participate in a way that is comfortable for their life.

We’re serving the whole community, not just the homeless, not just the food insecure, not just the chemically addicted. We are taking all of those who are struggling and giving them a hand up.

What do you want people to know about Rescue Mission?

An individual has an opportunity to participate in the Rescue Mission in multiple ways. Recently, someone sent us a check and I called and said, “I’m so thankful for this donation. This is the first time that you’ve invested in the Rescue Mission. What made you pick us?”

And he said, “We used to come in and we would donate turkeys, but we weren’t able to do that this year. So, I wanted to send a check.”

Another donor said that he used to volunteer with his daughter, that they would come in together to serve lunch. They’ve been unable to do that, but he wanted to make sure he invested with a financial contribution.

We are taking all of those who are struggling and giving them a hand up.

There are so many ways that someone can contribute,

How will you use the funds raised from the Giant Food Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs?

Since these are unrestricted funds, they would be used organization wide. They could go to supporting Changed Life Recovery, which incidentally needs food because our residents are given three meals a day. So, it all comes full circle.

A native of Manassas, Virginia, Jasmine Sneed joined the Rescue Mission in 2021 to focus on cultivating partnerships in the local community.

As Partnership Development Director, Jasmine nurtures existing relationships and works to expand the Rescue Mission’s partnership base.

We are taking all of those who are struggling and giving them a hand up.

Leading the way to end Alzheimer’s and all dementia.

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION, GREATER MARYLAND CHAPTER

The Alzheimer’s Association may be best known for its advocacy, but Ellen Torres of the Greater Maryland Chapter stresses the support provided by its

24/7 helpline for people living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, their caregivers and professionals. Anyone can call, and someone is always at the other end.

Giant Food has supported this nonprofit organization through its Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs.

Tell us about Alzheimer’s Association Greater Maryland Chapter.

The Alzheimer’s Association in Greater Maryland was founded in 1980 by a group of volunteers working with top Johns Hopkins doctors. At the time, there was very little information about dementia; senility is frequently what they called it. They saw this incredible burden on caregivers, but there was no information or support; the doctors felt like the families needed something. So, they pulled together a group of volunteers who created an organization around providing support for caregivers for those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia issues.

of chapters across the country. The Greater Maryland chapter hired its first employee in 1986. In 2016, we merged with all the chapters across the country to create one national organization. Now we are a chapter office of the greater organization.

Our mission is twofold: providing care and support for those living with the disease and their caregivers while researching a treatment, prevention and a cure. We also advocate for those living with this disease. We have this huge body of volunteers who lend their voices and tell their stories to their elected officials to say, “We need more research dollars. We need to put more research into this disease.”

Alzheimer’s or dementia, their caregivers and professionals; anyone can call.

About a year or so later, there was a movement across the nation led by Jerome Stone, who also found, when caring for his wife, who had Alzheimer’s, that there was nothing available. He was a businessman in Chicago with access to a medical library at one of the universities, and he saw that available information about Alzheimer’s all fit on one page. So, he started a national effort, and folks here locally decided that coordinating with some like organizations across the country would lead to being better together, which it did. And the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Association (known as the Alzheimer’s Association) was founded as a series

It is the most expensive disease that our country is facing. As the aging population continues to grow, Alzheimer’s is going to hit many more people, and it is going to devastate the finances of the country. Our advocacy effort for research dollars is working. In 2014, we had about $586 million in research, and now because of our tremendous advocacy efforts, we are at $3.5 billion for research.

Through our advocacy for Alzheimer’s, we’ve been able to make people understand there’s much more money going into cancer, diabetes, heart disease and HIV than Alzheimer’s, and of course, we need that. As a result, we’re seeing a drop in the number of people dying from these diseases. They’re living longer. But there’s this trajectory that if we don’t have some treatment or prevention, there will be 6 million individuals living with some form of dementia soon. And that number could go to 15 million by 2050.

The Alzheimer’s Association is working on all those

The most important service that we offer is a 24/7/365 helpline. It’s a service provided for people living with

fronts to create awareness for this disease. In the 1940s and ’50s, people would not talk about having cancer; a stigma was attached to it. But now, that stigma does not exist anymore. Cancer is now something that people rally around. But we are still in that stage where people are afraid to talk about Alzheimer’s or dementia; that stigma still exists for this disease.

The doctors still don’t know enough about it, and there is no treatment. We work as an organization to educate the medical community to acknowledge that a person diagnosed with dementia can have a meaningful life during the time they still have if you put supports around them and their family. You can make this journey a lot less difficult.

There are ways to prevent and reduce your risk. We offer a lot of free educational seminars to people, including knowing the 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s and what you can do to reduce your risk. We know that the heart and the brain go hand in hand. If you are monitoring and keeping good heart health, lowering your blood pressure, lowering your cholesterol, eating a heart healthy diet, exercise, those kinds of things that are critical to your heart health, they’re also critical to your brain health, including not smoking, not excessively drinking.

Things that are more in tune with the brain, like remaining social and learning new things, can also reduce your risk. Yes, crossword puzzles are good for your brain, but learning something new is more important.

What sets your organization apart from other nonprofits in the community?

The Alzheimer’s Association is the largest nonprofit

funder of research and the third largest overall in the world after the United States and Chinese governments. So that’s one of the things that sets us apart. But in addition to the research, we provide services for every day.

The most important service that we offer is a 24/7/365 helpline. It’s a service provided for people living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, their caregivers and professionals; anyone can call. There will always be somebody on the other end of that phone helpline, and that is 1-800-272-3900.

For instance, we recently had an employer concerned about an employee with memory issues and wanted more information about understanding what was going on and how to approach this with the employee.

For caregivers, it’s a tough job. It is 24 hours a day. As somebody progresses in the disease, you’ll often hear the term “sundowning,” meaning that the person is not sleeping well and is up all night, trying to go to work at 3:00 am. Forget the fact that they retired 20 years ago!

Sometimes the helpline is for practical advice. Sometimes the helpline is for referrals. For example, what can we do to keep mom safely in her home now? So, there could be talks about home healthcare. There could be talks about bringing in companion care. There could also be that difficult conversation that she now needs 24/7 care. Is it time for assisted living or memory care?

I had a spouse involved with a Walk to End Alzheimer’s. They had a family team, and when they registered, the family raised a lot of money in a very short amount of time. I looked at their walk page and realized that they were a family with the husband/father who was going

through the early stages of Alzheimer’s. So, the first thing I did was call to make sure she knew what we could do for them. We have support groups; we have care consultations; we can walk you through a plan for what you need to know for the next few months.

And the question she asked me, which has always stuck with me, was, “Is there somebody on the other end of that phone who can tell me how not to cry every day?”

And the answer is, “Yes, there is.” And so those are the kinds of services that caregivers and those living with the disease need, and that’s what we provide.

And it’s all provided free of charge to everyone. And it is provided because of the generosity of our donors through our fundraising events and the efforts of a tremendous number of volunteers.

front of me. And there was another woman on the other side who was crying.

So, I stopped to talk with them because it was apparent they were living with this. And one woman said that her husband had Lewy body dementia and was in his fifties. And the other woman, who looked like she might have been in her mid-twenties, had just lost her dad. Then I learned there were two other gentlemen in the group who were caring for their mothers.

As it turned out, the woman whose husband had Alzheimer’s was participating in one of our walks with him that very Saturday. She and her husband came surrounded by their friends, and this was the first time they had ever been to a walk. And at the walk, they saw a whole lot of other caregivers, partners and family members surrounding the person they love.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.

In the development function, I meet a lot of families, and I had an opportunity to do a lunch-and-learn and education seminar at a company. One of the things that we do in this education is to go through the 10 warning signs of the disease. I had gotten through a couple of them, and I saw right away that a woman was crying in

Her husband, Chuck, looked at me and asked, “Is all of this for me? Wow!” And I said, “Yes, Chuck, we’re all here for you.” He died in 2019, and I have remained close to his wife. When I went to the funeral, you heard about and saw the man he was before the disease took away his memory, took away his presence, his essence. Still, it didn’t take away the core of who this man was. And he had a beautiful life. He had wonderful children. He had a life that he lived to the fullest. I’m just so sorry that we have not yet found a way to cure this disease but knowing that we do everything we can every day to lead us to that inspires me every day to do the job. Whether it’s Chuck or any of the other amazing, courageous people I’ve met and some of the most dedicated and passionate caregivers, that’s what our work is all about.

Until we can say that every single person who’s living with this disease knows to come for help, we’ll keep working at it.

What is your most outstanding contribution to the community?

What bothers us more than anything, and we hear it far too often, is that people do not know we’re here to help them. When I’m out in the community, somebody will immediately come up and say, “I lost my mom,” or “I lost my dad,” or “I lost my grandma.” Or they may be currently living with Alzheimer’s. And one of the questions we ask is, “Did you know that we were here to help you?” And the answer is most often “No.” Over the last few years, we have focused on making sure people know we are here to help and also that physicians are aware they can send their patients to us for support.

But then we find someone who says, “Oh, yes! The helpline was a savior, and the support group, too. I got more help and support from those people than my family because they understood.” Then I know we’ve done something right. Until we can say that every single person who’s living with this disease knows to come for help, we’ll keep working at it. Still, we are very proud when we find somebody who says, “Yes, I got the message.” Here in Maryland, we were founded for that very reason, to provide that support, and it is fundamental to the work that we do and is available 24/7.

What do you want people to know about Alzheimer’s Association

Greater Maryland Chapter?

Please join us! Please join us in some way, whether to access the services we can provide or to lend your voice to the cause. Join us to lend your support as a volunteer. We have a very small staff, and we work tirelessly

in the community, but we can only accomplish what we accomplish because of dedicated volunteers. And there is a role for everyone, and we will find the right one for you. Join us to help with this effort to bring awareness everywhere and to everyone.

How will you use the funds raised from the Giant Food Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs?

Can we say how much we love Giant Food? Giant is a true supporter and has been a tremendous partner for more than 20 years. And we are so honored by their partnership and their relationship.

The money we raise through the Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs and all the other initiatives we do with Giant help fund our work every day. That includes local support and caregiver support, as well as our research and our national efforts.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I want to reiterate our helpline is available 24/7/365 at 1-800-272-3900. Here, you will be connected to everything that we do.

Ellen Torres is Development Director of Alzheimer’s Association, Greater Maryland Chapter. She joined the organization in June 2014:

“I work every day to bring an end to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and empower others to join us in the fight.”

At the end of the day, it’s more than just food.

BRIDGEFEEDS

As Ministry Coordinator Kurt Nguyen explains, “Caring about the lives of our recipient families is what we do. BridgeFeeds makes connections and builds relationships with families daily to ensure they know they are not alone. We want to give people a sense of dignity and normalcy in an otherwise abnormal situation that they may be in.” Giant Food has supported this nonprofit through its Bloomin’ 4 Good Program.

Tell us about BridgeFeeds.

BridgeFeeds was founded eight years ago, but my wife and I took over the ministry three years ago in 2019. Our mission is to help families in need of food assistance throughout Loudon County, Virginia.

We had a very humble beginning. The founder got connected with a food network in our local area, and we were able to start bringing in food from grocery chains around here. The founder initially operated out of her home before transitioning to our current location in Ashburn, Virginia.

occasion, meat whenever it’s available. Then we package and distribute it every Monday to our recipient families throughout Loudon County.

What sets you apart from other organizations in your community?

One thing that sets us apart is our Ashburn location. We’re centrally located in Loudon County, which makes it a lot easier for people to get to us from anywhere within our surrounding areas or even, in some cases, outside of the region.

When my wife Julie and I took over BridgeFeeds three years ago, the pantry did around 30,000 pounds in the first year. Last year we increased to about 50,000 and are now on track to do about 75,000 pounds of food by the end of the year. It has been quite a trajectory for us, primarily due to the economic inflation within the food industry. We see so many more food-insecure individuals.

What services do you provide to the community?

Our core service is providing food assistance in the form of various items that we gather and collect as a team throughout the week.

That includes everything from fresh produce to dairy products, to loaves of bread, some salads and then on

What makes us unique is how we perceive our role as a food pantry and how we approach food assistance. Over the years, my wife and I have learned a lot from volunteering at many different food pantries, so we wanted to bring that knowledge with us when we took over BridgeFeeds. It comes down to a fundamental thought: no one wants to come to a food pantry unless they have to, and for some people, this makes them feel like they have done something wrong in life to end up here. Unfortunately, there can be an initial feeling of shame or guilt when visiting a food pantry. We try to make the experience of coming to our food pantry a safe and stress-free experience. We do little things like greeting everybody by their first name and asking how their day is going. It sounds simple, but it makes a huge difference. Our volunteers are encouraged to say hi and welcome everyone that comes through the door; it can put people at ease.

Another area that we focus on is how we package our food. Taking care and dignity in how things are put together is very important. It is simple but essential: we

What makes us unique is how we perceive our role as a food pantry and how we approach food assistance.

package and distribute our food in grocery bags. When families come to pick up, they can feel like they are taking food home from a grocery store, not just items thrown into a random brown box.

To go hand and hand with packing our food properly, we also strive to provide families with a nice complete variety of food. We are incredibly thankful for any food offered to the pantry, from typical dry goods to fresh produce and meats. Our primary goal is to deliver fresh, nutritious and diverse food to these families. Quality is everything; at the end of the day, it’s more than just food. Caring about the lives of our recipient families is what we do. BridgeFeeds makes connections and builds relationships with families daily to ensure they know they are not alone. We want to give people a sense of dignity and normalcy in an otherwise abnormal situation that they may be in.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.

It was initially challenging to get the word out about the pantry. Loudon County is a huge area with many communities. Fortunately, several of our volunteers happen to be schoolteachers in the county. With these excellent teachers’ help, we could connect with the school’s parent liaisons in several areas. These liaisons are the first line of defense for students and families in need. This connection has allowed us to be the first point of contact for many children and families needing food assistance.

Because of our communications with the school system, we can be a valuable resource for families in need.

Building this working relationship with these parent liaisons in several schools in the county has created trust, and they now have become a great referral resource for just sending families. We have built up an excellent pipeline of families that continually come to BridgeFeeds for food assistance, and we are so grateful for this beautiful connection.

What is your most outstanding achievement to the community?

There’s still a lot of work to be done. We see more and more families coming into our doors because the current economy impacts them.

One great thing we have accomplished this year is getting more exposure and connecting and partnering with local government, schools and other nonprofits. We have been able to make so many extraordinarily supportive and helpful connections within Loudon County, and just being able to work with the community to fight food insecurity has been a significant achievement for our organization.

When a family comes to us and says that they got a job or were able to move into a better home and no longer need assistance from BridgeFeeds, that is the definition of success for us. Along the way, we were able to help someone get through these struggles, and bringing the number of food insecure down is so rewarding.

What do you want people to know about BridgeFeeds?

With this incredible growth, we have a new website that is more robust featuring new resources and an eas-

ier way to contact us. The website is www.bridgefeeds. org, and our direct phone number is (571) 353-9842. BridgeFeeds wants individuals to know we are here to help and have the resources and contact information to make accessing us as easy as possible. When you are experiencing food insecurity, finding resources is essential and one of our top priorities.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

We are very grateful to Giant Food for partnering with us through the Bloomin’ 4 Good Program; it has been an excellent way to get our name out. The team here gets so excited when we are selected, and we can see the number of people who support BridgeFeeds. We love to promote through email, flyers and social media, and we see the results. We thoroughly enjoy being a part of this program!

We would also like to express our gratitude to our helpers, major partners including Acacia Church, Mount Hope Church, Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Loudoun Hunger Relief, Celestial Manna and Food Donation Connection for their generous support.

4 Good Program?

Every dollar makes a difference, and we’re so thankful for that. Primarily these funds go into our food operations budget to keep everything going. The Giant Food Bloomin’ 4 Good Program donations support the supplies and general maintenance needed to keep our doors open to provide people with much-needed food.

Kurt Nguyen is Ministry Coordinator of BridgeFeeds. He assumed responsibility for the ministry in 2019 together with his wife Julie.

How will you use the funds raised from the Giant Food Bloomin’

When a family comes to us and says that they got a job or were able to move into a better home and no longer need assistance from

BridgeFeeds, that is the definition of success for us.

A commitment to Pride 365.

CAPITAL PRIDE ALLIANCE

Development Director Mike Alexander explains that Pride is more than any single event. It’s a commitment this nonprofit organization make 365 days a year. Giant Food has supported Capital Pride Alliance through its Community Bag Program.

Tell us about Capital Pride Alliance.

Capital Pride Alliance celebrates, educates, supports and inspires our multi-faceted communities to grow and preserve our history and protect our rights for current and future generations. We achieve these goals through our stewardship of diverse programming and events, specifically year-round LGBTQ+ Pride festivities centered in Washington, DC, and the National Capital Region.

Capital Pride Alliance, as it is today, was founded in 2008. We took over celebration duties from Whitman Walker Health, which had been organizing and running the Pride Celebration. But Pride itself in DC goes back to 1975 when the first Pride celebration took place.

We have literally thousands and thousands of those first-time Pride people coming out every year.

And for them to experience it and know that the community is there is a great thing.

What services do you provide to your community?

Our primary role is to amplify and support other nonprofits and the LGBTQ+ community. In other words, while we don’t supply direct services to anyone, we ensure that the voices of those nonprofit organizations serving the community are magnified. Through our work, we seek to make sure that people are aware of them through our larger events, such as the Pride Pa-

rade and Festival. That provides huge visibility.

We try to ensure the general community knows that the LGBTQ+ community is here. We also know our work can’t be done without allies; they are vital to the LGBTQ+ community.

In addition to the Pride celebration, we do events throughout the year as well. Our tagline is Have Pride 365. We believe that Pride is more than any single event; it’s a commitment that we make 365 days a year.

We seek to engage other nonprofit organizations and do as much as possible to support, market and promote what other community members are doing. That sets us apart from other Pride organizations as well.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.

On the surface, you might consider that what we do is somewhat basic in nature. We produce events; we help market nonprofits; we help to bring these large groups of people together not just here but in the Mid-Atlantic region.

But we’re providing a venue for freedom of expression and a sense of community that is very relevant, even though we are always asked whether Pride is still necessary. It’s a big question, and it’s one of those things where people think that LGBTQ+ rights have advanced so far that they question whether we need to keep fighting. But we’ve seen how things change with different administrations and now the current Supreme Court.

Our Pride Festival illustrates why the answer is yes,

Pride is still necessary. This year we had over 460,000 people come to that one-day event from noon until 9:00 p.m. It included an ongoing concert with performers continuing throughout the entire day. At about 7:00 p.m., our Executive Director took the stage and asked, “Who’s here for the first time?” Out of about 60,000 people there just for the concert, there was a sea of hands of probably 10,000 or more people attending for the first time. And that is really what the power of Pride is. Pride is still important and relevant because you still have people coming out, learning things about themselves and being able to be around a group of people like themselves. It’s a very important and powerful thing. We have literally thousands and thousands of those first-time Pride people coming out every year. And for them to experience it and know that the community is there is a great thing.

What is your greatest achievement or contribution to the community?

What’s really great about our organization is that we are very collaborative. Considering the sheer scope of what we’re able to do and what we put on for the community, a lot of things are involved to make sure everything goes well. The logistics are incredibly complex. But we’re a very small team with only two full-time staff and a few individuals who work on a part-time contract basis. Everything else is thanks to our volunteers; we have a volunteer production team of 30-35 members at any given time, and they are responsible for ensuring they have what they need to make the events successful with our support.

So, for us to put on what we do and for it to be primarily through volunteers is something to be very proud

of. Our Capital Pride Festival is the largest one-day festival in DC.

The support we have received has only increased, whether through sponsorships, volunteer support, city involvement or parade contingent involvement. That we can do this year after year at such a high level is quite remarkable.

What do you want people to know about Capital Pride Alliance?

The one thing is that we’re not going anywhere. COVID-19 was a big hit to a lot of nonprofit organizations. What we’re trying to do for Capital Pride is not

only to get stronger but also diversify our resources so that we can continue to help more nonprofits that need the assistance.

This year we implemented our Pride 365 Fund after a few years of planning. Pride 365 Fund is where we fundraise for different initiatives of other nonprofit organizations. And we devote a portion of our sponsorship funds to the Pride 365 Fund so that we can help address some of the community’s most pressing needs. Eventually, it will become a grant program-type scenario where people apply for funds.

We’re trying to diversify our offerings and make sure that we’re still staying relevant to help meet the community’s needs in a different and new way in addition to the events we’re already producing.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

We are very excited to announce that Capital Pride Alliance and Washington, DC, will host World Pride in 2025! This coincides with the 50th anniversary of Pride in DC. We will expand our events to make them much larger, including a two-day festival and a much longer and larger parade, though ours is already four hours long. We will also host a human rights conference, a Pride March, and dozens of other events kicking off during DC Black Pride Weekend May 23 and going through June 8.

We are planning to welcome more than 2 million guests to Washington, DC, for World Pride, so we will be partnering with so many organizations, businesses, and nonprofits in DC, Maryland and Virginia to make this possible. In addition, we will have other Prides from around the world coming to help us celebrate in the nation’s capital. We will be very visible and very vocal! Save the dates!

How are you using the funds you’ve received from the Giant Food Community Bag Program?

Those will be earmarked for the Pride 365 Fund and used to support other nonprofit organizations through Capital Pride. It’s great to have something like this, and we’ll use the funds where they can do the most good.

Mike Alexander has been Development Director for Capital Pride Alliance for nearly 10 years.

We are very excited to announce that Capital Pride Alliance and Washington, DC will host World Pride in 2025!

2022 Impact Stories

GIANT FOOD COMMUNITY BAG & BLOOMIN’ 4 GOOD PROGRAMS

For more information about the Programs and to view more Impact Stories, please visit giantfood.2givelocal.com

Jim Brennan

Co-Founder & COO 207.351.6903 jimb@psitmatters.com

Melissa Hansen Senior Program Manager 603.380.9400, ext. 109 melissah@psitmatters.com