Greater Riverdale Cares & Route 1 Communities Care

TO OUR DONORS: Greater Riverdale Cares and Route One Communities Care (GRC/ROCC) thank you for your past support, and urgently need your continued help.

The COVID pandemic has strained and endangered both small businesses, especially in the restaurant industry, and ordinary working families. Our volunteers have been working for more than 2 years to address both needs. We raise funds that support local family-owned restaurants to prepare nutritious meals for the many residents of our communities who are facing hunger. 

We have been distributing 300-500 meals a week. Participating restaurants, most minority-owned, tell us that this project has helped them to survive and to keep workers employed. We provide $10 a meal, so purchasing 100 meals from any given restaurant puts $1000 extra in their coffers. Our volunteers have distributed over 33,000 meals from 13 restaurants to 14 distribution sites—churches, apartment complexes, and schools. Our meals now include vegetarian and halal alternatives. 

Our original goal for GoFundMe was $100,000. With your generous help, we have met and exceeded that goal. We were able to secure funds from foundations, corporations and local town councils, as they drew on the American Rescue Plan, and those funds, along with yours, through January 2022, and into February. Like so many, we had hoped that better days were coming. But with the surge in the Omicron variant, a stasis in employment, and legitimate fears about the state of the economy, we will need to continue our work for the foreseeable future. So, we have raised our GoFundMe goal to $200,000.

Though the need continues, our funds will run out early in the new year just when we know the need for our meals will be great. Many government programs have ended and many people are again having to depend on programs like ours to feed their families. We know that many of you have already given generously to this project. Perhaps others of you have not yet done so, but have considered it. Please consider it now. Your donations can make a huge difference. $40 provides a nutritious meal to a family of four, but please give generously, whatever you can. You can be sure that all your donations will directly support our local restaurants and feed families in nearby neighborhoods.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW 

Tax-deductible donations: Central Kenilworth Avenue Revitalization CDC (CKAR), our sponsor, is a non-profit. Donations made directly to CKAR are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Clicking on the above link takes you to their website. For monthly donations, specify “monthly” in the drop-down box, and write GRC or ROCC in the Comment section.

You can also send a check to Central Kenilworth Avenue CDC, 6801 Kenilworth Ave #203, Riverdale Park, MD 20737.