Bethel Hearts for Souls Outreach Center
Bethel Hearts for Souls Outreach Center
The mission of the Bethel Hearts for Souls Outreach Center food pantry is to offer healthy, nutritious food at no cost to Neighborhood residents and Community in need, while always treating our clients with the highest level of dignity and respect and financial education.
In addition to the unemployed and homeless, there is a large number of working poor and elderly residents whose monthly incomes do not cover their expenses. These individuals and families earn a minimum wage or are retired on fixed minimum incomes.
Particularly hard hit are low income families and single parents with young children. According to our local census, one in six residents' falls below the poverty level. Even more distressing is that the rate of poverty is 50% higher in our area than in the general city population.
WHAT IS FOOD INSECURITY?
•Food insecurity is the condition of not having regular access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life.
FOOD INSECURITY IN CHILDREN:
•Hungry children are sick more often, more likely to suffer growth impairment and incur developmental impairments that limit their physical, intellectual and emotional development.
•Hungry children perform more poorly in school and have lower academic achievement.
•Hungry children have more social and behavioral problems, as well as less energy for complex social interactions and cannot adapt to stresses as easily.
DISTINCTIVE TARGET GROUP
-
Seniors
-
Families
-
Students/Youth
-
Military
SCOPE OF PROJECT
-
our project is International
-
Our project is National
-
Our project is Statewide
-
Our project is Local/City
Our Corporate Partners:
Our Corporate Partners:
- The Wawa Foundation Inc.
- Walmart
Capital Area Food Bank
- Food Lion Feeds
- Bombas Donation Products
- ALDI Cares
- Ross Stores, Inc.
- Costco
- Wegmans
- Whole Food Market
- C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc.
- Office of Emergency Management
- Weis Markets
Awards & Honors
GEOGRAPHY COVERAGE - USA
Our project is outside of continental US
Our project is of International scope (inside and outside of continental US)
Our project is National in scope (National presence in continental US)
Our project covers the Midwest (IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, MO, ND, OH, SD, WI)
Our project covers Mountain West (CO, ID, KS, MT, NE, NV, UT, WY)
Our project covers the Northeast (specifically DE, MD, NJ, PA, or WV)
Our project covers the Southeast (specifically GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, or VA)
Ways to Give
Ways to Give
Donate: Support our mission on the Streets
Reach us by mail:
Bethel Hearts for Souls Outreach Center
P.O. Box 132
Temple Hills MD 20757-0132
or
4806 St Barnabas Rd, #132
Temple Hills, MD 20757-0132
E-mails
foodpantryinitiative@bhfsoc.org
bethelheartssoulsoutreachcntr@gmail.com
KEY TERMS
DMV (or Greater Washington Area)
The DMV, short for DC-Maryland-Virginia, refers to the Washington, DC metropolitan area and includes the following jurisdictions: the District of Columbia; Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in MD; Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William Counties in VA; and Alexandria City, VA. (Within Fairfax County are included Fairfax City and Falls Church City. Within Prince William County are included Manassas City and Manassas Park City.)
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity, as defined by the USDA, is “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Individuals who are referred to as food insecure in the report were identified, using the USDA’s standard eighteen-question screener, as having experienced one or more food-related hardships at any point during the past year. The screener is used to identify four levels of food security: food secure, marginally food secure, low food secure, and very low food secure. In this report, the first two categories are referred to as food secure, and the third and fourth categories are referred to as food insecure. The fourth category is referred to as severely food insecure.
Hunger
Hunger is a physical symptom of a lack of adequate food. It is not a quantifiable term, but rather a description of the result that reducing one’s food intake can have. Hunger and food insecurity are not synonymous, though they are closely related.
Inequity
For the purposes of this report, inequity refers to an uneven distribution of resources or opportunity relative to need. Unlike “inequality,” which assumes all people should receive equal shares of support from the systems around them, the term “inequity” assumes that systems should work in favor of those starting with lower resources and opportunity, not against them.
Social determinants of health
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Categories of SDOH include economic stability, education, health care, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context.
Hunger Report 2023
KEY POINTS
-
32% of all residents across greater Washington – more than 1.2 million people – didn’t always know where their next meal would come from.
-
In every county across the region, at least one in six people faced challenges getting enough to eat at some point last year.
-
Those experiencing food insecurity are employed at essentially the same rates as those who are not.
-
Nearly half of the region’s food-insecure population is experiencing at least one diet-related health condition – diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, or obesity.
-
Economic recovery for those hit hardest financially by the pandemic is lagging well behind those who were less impacted, widening preexisting inequities in our economy.
1 in 3 neighbors struggled to access enough food during the last year. Nearly 1 in 5 were severely food insecure.
Hunger is present in every part of our region.
shows at least 1 in 6 people in each county experienced food insecurity. In Prince George's County, almost half of residents struggled to access enough food.
shows that being employed doesn't exclude you from hunger: 76% of those who are food insecure in the Greater Washington region were employed last year, compared to 73% of those who were food secure.
Most workers showed signs of underemployment, reporting they are seeking higher wages and more hours.
Service Programs
Nutrition & Wellness - Eating well helps improve lives and build strong, healthy communities. So we’ve put nutrition at the core of our work.
Groceries to Go - Get fresh groceries every month!
Head to either of our centers during food pantry hours to get fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, as well as shelf-stable items.
Senior Brown Bag - Seniors face hunger and food insecurity at a higher rate than many other groups, in part because fixed incomes can make good food unaffordable. The Senior Brown Bag program helps older adults get the food they need to stay healthy and strong in later life.
Emergency Food Shelter / Homeless Services - The Homeless Services Program provides three elements that are critical to homeless families: emergency shelter, housing assistance, and family advocacy.
Some who are experiencing homelessness may be living in their cars or in other places unfit for human habitation. Others may be temporarily “doubled up” with family and friends in potentially unsafe and crowded conditions. When people turn to our emergency shelters, they have exhausted all of their options for housing and literally have no place else to go. Our first priority is to get people into safe shelter or housing.
Emergency Shelter
First and foremost, people experiencing homelessness need help with the basics – a safe place to sleep and food to eat. We operate year-round shelters that provide all of the basics – and more. In some cases, we can help people bypass shelter altogether and go directly from homelessness into housing as part of Multnomah County’s Homeless Family System of Care, and other related programs. Our Just Future operates three shelters: one for families and two for adults who identify as women, nonbinary, or genderqueer. While shelter is not designed to be a long-term solution, you may stay as long as you need if you are following program rules and expectations.
Email: Please complete the form below to ensure the fastest response possible, or email bethelheartssoulsoutreachcntr@gmail.com
Contact Us
Email: Please complete the form below to ensure the fastest response possible, or email bethelheartssoulsoutreachcntr@gmail.com
Contact Us