Who: Miriam's Kitchen
What: Miriam's Kitchen provides free, homemade meals and support services to over 4,000 of Washington D.C.'s homeless every year.
Why we are obsessed: I volunteered with Miriam's Kitchen while I was doing my internship in Washington D.C. last summer. I even won 2nd place in their pie baking contest!
I was first drawn to them as an organization due to their focus on serving their guests with dignity. Literally, when they would tweet their menu in the morning I would be DROOLING.
So I went in and did jobs that varied from peeling a million potatoes to frying a million plantains. When I was really lucky, I would be able to serve the guests. "Would you like some syrup with your pancakes?" was one of my favorite positions. Or manning the milk cart. That was fun, too.
Each staffer at Miriam's treats their guests like their own family. They care about getting them support, whether that's a warm meal, a pair of socks, housing, a canvas to paint, or someone to talk to.
Oh, and the White House loves them, which is pretty neat. (See the First Lady in the photo above!) Miriam's was one of the beneficiary's from the snazzy White House organic garden, actually!
Miriam's also hit a huge milestone recently. They were able to expand their services to offer dinner meals as well. This takes what they do to a totally new level of awesomeness.
Miriam's Kitchen is one of those places that you feel good supporting and blogging about about a million times. (Like I do.) They really inspire me to push the limits and keep growing and to not get comfortable just thinking that you are doing enough for your community and the world.
So, regardless of us draining our accounts to send money to our colleagues in Haiti, we need to send some barley&birch dollars to Miriam's Kitchen.
So let's test your knowledge of homelessness. For every person that attempts to guess the one INCORRECT fact below, barley&birch will donate $1 (which is an entire meal for a guest) to Miriam's Kitchen.
Which one is NOT TRUE:
1. A typical guest at Miriam’s Kitchen has been homeless for nearly 5 years.
2. Most of our guests stay in transitional housing, but come to us for their meals and support services that aren’t available in their home
3. One of our guests has his painting of Barack Obama hanging in the White House.
Start guessing!
P.S. Please check out their website, follow them on Twitter. They often tweet their "wish list" which contains things as simple as socks, jeans, and coffee. Consider spending a few extra bucks the next time you are at the grocery store and shipping off a box of goodies to them.
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