November 16, 2023
Health and wellness are key tenets of Resident Services at Affordable Homes & Communities (AHC). Across the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, residents have access to valuable resources to help guarantee food security. Read below to learn more about how AHC, its partners, and volunteers ensure residents have access to healthy, nutritious food throughout the holiday season and beyond.
Maryland
1 My Groceries to Go! provides residents living on lower incomes at Charter House, a senior community in Silver Spring, with 30- to 40-pound boxes of pantry staples each month. The program is a partnership with the Maryland Food Bank and the Maryland Department of Aging.
2 Manna Food Center distributes food to senior residents at Charter House, which equates to a $100+ boost in monthly food budgets.
3 Capital Area Food Bank’s Senior Brown Bag program provides seniors at Charter House with healthy food each month.
4 At MonteVerde, a community in Baltimore for seniors and non-elderly residents with a disability, residents receive food from the Maryland Food Bank monthly.
5 This year, Resident Services distributed gift cards to help residents at MonteVerde purchase the fixings for their holiday meals.
Virginia
6 Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) distributes food weekly to residents at six communities—Gates of Ballston, Hunter’s Park, The Apex, Woodbury Park/The Frederick, The Shell, and The Shelton. AHC volunteers support the distributions.
7 Real Food for Kids supports residents at three communities—Serrano, The Shelton, and Arbor Heights. The organization’s goal is to build better eating habits for kids and support their healthy development through access to nutritious foods.
8 Capital Area Food Bank runs its Senior Brown Bag program at Hunter’s Park, Colonial Village West, Harvey Hall, and The Shelton, providing seniors with nutritious food to support healthy aging. The food bank also provides healthy meals for our Afterschool program.
9 Knights of Columbus provides boxed Thanksgiving meals to Hunter’s Park residents each year.
10 St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington is giving 40 Thanksgiving dinner baskets to residents at The Terraces at Arlington View.
Community Partners
11 Meals on Wheels provides ready-made meals to many of our older residents.
12 ALIVE! provides food services to many of our Alexandria residents. This year, the organization is providing turkeys through a lottery system.
13 Many local churches, like St. Charles Catholic Church, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, and St. James United Methodist Church, provide food pantries or meals that our residents are invited to participate in.
14 Arlington Department of Human Services helps AHC residents get access to food program benefits like SNAP and WIC.
15 Amazon is providing additional funding for AHC Resident Services this year to provide holiday meals and support programs focused on community-building efforts across our communities.