Our Mission:
Nourishing Bethesda’s mission is to fight food insecurity in our area by providing nutritious food and community support to our neighbors in need, as well as offering and linking our clients to wraparound resources that will enable them to build healthier and more stable lives.
The Beginning
During the midst of the COVID pandemic in the summer of 2020, concerned parishioners at St. John’s Norwood Episcopal Church met with Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson to determine how best to mitigate growing food insecurity issues in our area.
Taking Action
St. John’s Norwood determined that joining forces with private, public, service, and faith communities would give us the most effective means to address food insecurity caused both by the pandemic and endemic poverty in our community.
Thus the non-profit Nourishing Bethesda coalition (NB) was born. NB launched its first initiative on August 14 with its highly successful family food distribution. Every Friday afternoon, coalition members distribute healthy produce and shelf-stable groceries to nearly 330 households at the B-CC Rescue Squad. Fifty volunteers from the community pack, transport, and distribute food packages every week.
NB established its second initiative to help the County with its Holiday Giving Program, providing toys and food to nearly 400 families. It is currently evaluating how it can serve other food insecure citizens in our community.
NB is funded by County grants, donations, and foundation grants. NB is a member of the Capital Area Food Bank.
“Nourishing Bethesda is an example of what our community is capable of when residents, businesses, faith communities, and nonprofits come together in tough times to support each other and the most vulnerable among us.”
Coalition Members
St. John’s Norwood is a vibrant, growing Episcopal church in the heart of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Maryland, which has been serving the Bethesda community for nearly 150 years. St. John’s has a long-standing commitment to working on food insecurity issues in Montgomery County.
Montgomery County Government joined NB as an official member. Working directly with the county’s Food Security Task Force, NB has sourced fresh produce, shelf-stable items, bread and cereal, with chicken, dairy, and holiday treats as available.
Our second partner, the Bethesda Chevy-Chase Rescue Squad graciously provided a convenient location for NB’s food distribution program. B-CC Rescue Squad is a philanthropically operated organization that provides state-of-the-art emergency medical, fire, and rescue services to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase area and surrounding Maryland communities.
Members of The Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce form the core of the Greater Bethesda business community. Member businesses are a part of an organization that provides networking opportunities, business leads and referrals, proactive leadership on legislative and economic development issues, and an improved business climate, all for the betterment of the community as a whole. For the past 30 years, the Chamber has collaborated with several community organizations to sponsor an annual Goodwill Dinner, which provides gifts, a warm meal, and other necessities to the homeless and disadvantaged around the Holidays. In this year of the pandemic, the Chamber joined NB and sponsored holiday dinners, pies, wreaths and gingerbread house for our families.
Bethesda Big Train is a summer collegiate baseball team and nonprofit organization that plays in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Bruce Adams and John Ourisman founded Big Train in 1999 with the idea of building community through baseball. Big Train also helps local nonprofits throughout the community by promoting them, giving them visibility and fundraising opportunities in the community, as well as direct donations. Big Train and its mascot Homer have enthusiastically supported Nourishing Bethesda by hosting fundraisers and helping with the weekly distributions.
For more information on Nourishing Bethesda, please contact info@nourishingbethesda.org or click the button below to get in touch.