Feed Anne Arundel

It is hard to believe, but it has been two years since we launched Feed Anne Arundel. What started as a conversation about food insecurity just days after the pandemic had been proclaimed by WHO, very quickly transitioned to a full fledged program that would go on to serve more than 200,000 meals to our friends and neighbors in Anne Arundel County.

Over the past two years, our 75 restaurants have delivered meals to local churches, schools, and non-profits. Your favorite restaurants pivoted again and again to meet the shifting demands of the pandemic, but we also worked together to keep our community fed. We collaborated with each other to ensure we would survive the pandemic so that we would eventually thrive. And thrive we are.

Today, we are ending our GoFundMe campaign and sunsetting the Feed Anne Arundel program for the time being. We are forever grateful for the incredible support from the entire community. Thank you for believing in us and for supporting us over these past two years. We are better humans and we are better community partners as a result.

See you around the county!
Monica Alvarado
Founder, Feed Anne Arundel

I know I don’t post as often as I should, but we are still out here fighting the good fight and doing our best to care for our neighbors. Thanks to all who support our efforts and to our restaurants, who are ALWAYS ready to answer the call for help!

Feed Anne Arundel's 70+ participating restaurants provided over 88,500 meals to community members in need in 2021. Now, as we roll into 2022, we've found ourselves low on funds with the needs increasing dramatically.

Frigid temps mean our unhoused residents are seeking lifesaving shelter at night, so we have been working with Blessed in Tech Ministries, Inc. again this winter to provide hot meals to those who turn to the Stanton Center in Annapolis for shelter.

We've also been sending family style meals to 80 families of Afghan Refugees staying in hotels in Linthicum while they await official resettlement.

Just this month alone, we've spent nearly $50,000 to help our neighbors, but our funding has run out. We need your help to continue our work. Will you consider donating today?

Just $10 will provide a hot meal to someone at the Stanton Center. $50 will provide a family style meal to a family in need.

Every penny counts. Please donate to https://www.ripkenfoundation.org/donate - choose Feed Anne Arundel from the drop-down.

We are so honored and excited to announce that The Colonial Players of Annapolis has chosen to donate proceeds from their Livestream Ticket sales to their adaptation of A Christmas Carol to Feed Anne Arundel. They just announced three additional opportunities to catch a recorded stream of the 2021 production at the following times:

Friday, December 17 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 25 at 2:00 p.m.

We're so excited and can't wait to tune in today. So grab your tickets, enjoy the show, and help raise money for our program!

Tickets | A Christmas Carol, 2021 - Streaming | The Colonial Players, Inc. Check This Out: Get tickets and show information for A Christmas Carol, 2021 - Streaming - The Colonial Players, Inc.

The wreath decorating contest is LIVE and open for voting! Click the link for details on the decorating contest, Southwest giveaway and Holiday Mixer. All wreath proceeds will go to Feed Anne Arundel this year! We even made one of our own! https://www.annearundelchamber.org/keepin-the-cheer-here.../

The wreath with the most "likes/loves" will win the Facebook Favorite Award. Like your favorite and share the contest! Winners will be announced at the Holiday Mixer on 12/15. Shop Local and take a selfie with the wreaths and post using and be entered to win two roundtrip tickets from Southwest Airlines! The wreaths will also be available for purchase via our raffle and auction with all proceeds benefiting Feed Anne Arundel! Click Here for details on everything:
https://www.annearundelchamber.org/keepin-the-cheer-here-contest/

Most of the students at Tyler Heights Elementary School live at or below the poverty line. Can you help bring some cheer to their holidays? This year the goal is to get enough items donated so each of the 450 students can pick out one gift, so no one goes without something special.

Here is a sign-up genius with a few easy ways to help, including buying items from the Amazon Wish List:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0844adab2ca7f94-tyler5

We are about 1/3 of the way to our goal.

Huge thank you to Danielle W Press - Photographer of Naptown Food for donating proceeds from the sales of her beautiful Naptown Food Cookbook to Feed Anne Arundel! We are so excited and plan to put these funds towards the purchase of a community refrigerator or freezer in the New Year.

Want to support Feed Anne Arundel? Visit https://www.ripkenfoundation.org/donate and choose Feed Anne Arundel from the drop down. Thank you!

TOMORROW! Food and Blood Drive happening tomorrow at Chambers Park! We will be on hand to support the drive, as well as conduct a little fundraising. We would absolutely love your support and hope to see you tomorrow!

https://www.leadershipaa.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1547429

Leadership Anne Arundel Join LAA grads from Greater Parole Community Association (Lon Powell, NLA19, FLG20; Beryle Downs, NLA20; Sherry Hutton, NLA20; Lisa Wilson, NLA21), Anne Arundel County Food Bank (Susan Thomas, FLG21) and Feed Anne Arundel (Monica Alvarado, FLG09).

Shout out to our friends Willie and Dolores Bullock of Blessed in Tech Ministries, Inc. who run the overnight shelter at the Stanton Center in downtown Annapolis. When the temperatures dip, they jump into action to ensure a warm and safe space is open to those in need of shelter.

We are honored to partner with them again this winter to provide hot meals for dinner, as well as grab and go breakfasts and lunches for all who arrive. Our restaurants are always on standby and ready to support our community. Thanks to Luna Blu Ristorante and Prinos Mediterranean Grill for jumping in to provide delicious meals!

Congratulations Corey and Carol!

Such an honor for us! Thank you Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, Inc. for including us in this year’s awards! Honored to be in such wonderful company.

Congrats to for being awarded "Hometown Hero" for the 2021 Business Hall of Fame Awards Dinner next Thursday. Monica Alvarado, owner of Bread and Butter Kitchen in Eastport, came up with a simple idea to pay restaurants across Anne Arundel County to prepare nutritious meals for those in our community in need. She worked with Anne Arundel Connecting Together (ACT) to bring this idea to life. Community members would make donations to the organization - that would in turn invest the donations back to the community by paying local restaurants to prepare hot meals to be served. This kept restaurants open, employees working and provided food for those in need. Feed Anne Arundel was able to have over 100 restaurants involved in the project and provided more than 120,000 meals since starting and is still operating today. You can purchase tickets today to support Monica at the Awards Dinner here: http://ow.ly/n7B550Gn5Fx
To learn more about Feed Anne Arundel, click here: https://www.facebook.com/FeedAnneArundel
Signs Courtesy of

Love our community partners!

Good morning, Annapolis! I’m so excited to see you at the Anne Arundel County Farmers' Market, Inc. today between 10am and 1pm. In addition to lots of delicious jams and jellies, you can find these back to school/fundraiser cookies at my booth today. $1 from each cookie will be donated to Feed Anne Arundel.

Feed Anne Arundel has been rocking food and resource distribution during the pandemic, and also made sure our emergency workers and others affected by last week’s tornado stayed nourished and energized as they cleaned up the aftermath.

Come find me in Booth 39.

Good morning world! Today, Feed Anne Arundel restaurants have the absolute honor of partnering with World Central Kitchen to prepare and distribute 1500 meals to food distributions and first responders across our county. We are so honored and humbled to participate in this tiny way on what is the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

On this day, we remember. We will never forget.

(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Mark Hybers)

Don't forget to tune into Good Morning America tomorrow to catch our very own Monica Alvarado discuss Feed Anne Arundel and the amazing community in which we have the opportunity to serve. The show airs from 7AM - 9AM and will highlight a variety of people and organizations in Maryland.

Do you have a chainsaw and a little time this afternoon? We need more help at the Parole neighborhood cleanup. We have food from Sierra and Ice Cream from Always Ice Cream Company

We are are the Parole Health center on Drew St. please come join us!

UPDATE 9/8/2021: The central office at AACPS has reversed course, apologized for the *miscommunication*, and will allow the resource fairs at community schools to continue. We are happy, of course, but also need to figure out the logistics of getting fresh produce, proteins, bread, and eggs to each location across the county. Know of a company or non-profit that might be interested in being hired to fill that role? Let us know!

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Today we had the difficult responsibility to tell our volunteers and families that we can no longer provide the support and resources we've been facilitating since the pandemic hit. We found out about the new policy, which was updated overnight and prevents us from holding these resource fairs as we have for the past 18 months. But we aren't ready to stop and we aren't alone.

Thank you to Delegate Dana Jones, Senator Sarah Elfreth and Joanna Bache Tobin Board of Education District 6 for showing what leadership looks like. Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who have shown up week after week to support our community. No matter the weather.

It was hard to watch the last car drive away. Stand with us and demand a solution from AACPS.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) what's the next step?

Heads up! We will be at Tyler Heights Elementary this morning from 9-10:30 providing fresh and nutritious food from our partners at Anne Arundel County Food Bank, diapers/wipes, personal care items, like soap from Biggs & Featherbelle, yoga mats from Ruah Yoga, and more.

There is also an event at Ralph J. Bunche Community Center, Inc. in Edgewater. Feed Anne Arundel is sending 300 meals there today! The event begins around 10am.

Feed Anne Arundel restaurants are activated and preparing and delivering hot meals throughout the city of Annapolis and County. Pip Moyer has been opened as a shelter for those win need of a place to sleep. Meals are headed there now.

If you are aware of a community or neighborhood in need of hot meals today or tomorrow due to the hurricane, please respond here.

Thanks, Monica

Feed Anne Arundel restaurants are gearing up to provide family style meals to a number of events across the Anne Arundel County. We are looking forward to providing nutritious and delicious meals to our community! A list of events will be posted shortly!

Our friends at Food Rescue put together this map of food distribution locations across the county. So great! Share with all the people!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=14K-hWzWJe9olCEoySvmbEYwel3ORE8d1&usp=sharing

AAC Title One Schools - Food Access - Google My Maps AAC Title One Schools - Food Access

In the Capital Gazette Newspapers Capital Style Guide.

Thank you!

Truly humbled to receive the William Donald Schaeffer Helping People Award. Thank you Peter Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland, for your recognition of Feed Anne Arundel. It's been one wild ride and I am honored to have been in the right place at the right time when Ryan Sirmons of ACT Anne Arundel Connecting Together called and asked how restaurants might be able to help feed those in need.

One year later, more than 160,000 meals served and over $1.5M back into the hands of restaurants across the county. We are still going! Stay tuned for an announcement of the next chapter of Feed Anne Arundel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxpur3v57Ag

William Donald Schaefer Award - Central Maryland Comptroller of Maryland Peter Franchot presents the William Donald Schaefer Helping People Award to the 2020 winners of central Maryland that encompasses Ann...

Bravo, Roxana Rodriguez! Owner of Caliente Grill and with us from the very first delivery, she is a shining star in our community and a dear friend. Congrats on the recognition and for being such a pillar in the community!

One-on-One with Roxana Rodriguez, a Latina Entrepreneur WASHINGTON (WDVM) — Roxana Rodriguez is a Maryland small business owner, a community advocate, and a proud Latina. Rodriguez joined Capitol Review this week as she talked discussed her opport…

We have the most amazing sponsors! Take Biggs & Featherbelle for instance. Owned by sisters Kelley and Kacey, this woman and locally owned business continues to donate a variety of their amazing soap products for distribution throughout the county. This batch of castille soap will be distributed at the Tyler Heights event tomorrow morning.

Thank you so much for you ongoing support! We couldn’t do it without sponsors like you!

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week! Here's a list of some discounts offered to AACPS employees from some of our Feed Anne Arundel restaurants:

Bread and Butter Kitchen - 10% off for all school employees
Chart House - 15% off for all teachers - up to party of 4
Bubba's 33 - Glen Burnie, MD- 10% off all school employees
Mother's Peninsula Grille - Happy Hour specials for teachers
Stan and Joe's Saloon- Half price appetizers from 3-7
Prinos Mediterranean Grill - 10% off for all teachers
Sam's on the Waterfront - Half priced appetizers from 3-6pm, $2/off house wines and martinis. $1 off beer and rail drinks
Deven's Deli - Half priced boxed lunches for a rate of $7.99 that includes a sandwich, cookies and chips.
Mi Casita Authentic Mexican Restaurant - Teachers discounts available
Queretaro Authentic Mexican Restaurant - Teachers discounts available
El Riconcito Authentic Mexican Restaurant - Teachers discounts available
La Casita Mexican Restaurant And Cantina- Teachers discounts available

Attention all restaurants! The Restaurant and Food Services Grant is open so if you weren’t able to apply before, now is your chance!

https://www.aaedc.org/business/financing-and-tax-credits/restaurant-and-food-service-recovery-grant/

Restaurant and Food Service Recovery Grant | Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation Anne Arundel restaurant and food service businesses can soon apply for a grant of up to $10,000 that can cover working capital.

Stop in for brunch at Soul, one of our amazing partner restaurants!

Who’s down for some brunch? You can get it every Saturday and Sunday from 11-2 at Soul. The outdoor courtyard is open and ready for you. Sunday Blues Brunch features music from our house band ¬– Honest Lee Soul starting at noon. Make your plans and come on down. www.SoulAnnapolis.com