STM Kokua Foods distributed 11,374 lbs of fresh produce, grocery, dairy, bread, frozen foods, canned goods and other nonperishable items to food insecure families this December serving students at Takoma Park ES, Piney Branch ES, Rolling Terrace ES, Wheaton Woods ES, Takoma Park MS, and Montgomery Blair HS. We are grateful to our food partners at Wegmans Germantown, Wegmans Woodmore, Imperfect Foods, TPSS Co-op, KOL Foods, The Nugent family for their weekly donation of a grocery bag of nonperishable foods, to Girl Scout Troop #4910 who served at our RTES distribution and to U-Haul Moving & Storage for donating the use of their trucks and to those who donated items for holiday distribution including: Wegmans and TPSS Co-op who hosted a toy drive for us, Sara Demetriou/Yarns for Warmth for their donation of handknit hats and scarves, to Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School for handmade scarves, to Marion for using her birthday to make scarves to donate to us, to Mike & Esther Tabor/Licking Creek Bend Farm for donating table top Christmas trees to our families, and to Good360 where we purchased additional toys for our distributions. Special thanks to our distribution partner Bryan Goehring & Difference Makers/TPMS, and site managers Doris Duarte /Hampshire Tower Apts and Helen Winder/WWES. Thanks also to our STM members (Lana, Jacob, Sam, Jacinto, Ocean, and Amaranth) for helping with the distribution as well as giving out new books at TPMS and RTES, student volunteers (Yacouba, Bakarra, Hadrian, Everett, Alejandro, Adonis and Jairo), and adult volunteers (Councilman Tom Hucker, WWES Principal Daman Harris, Bean Paul, Andrea Barnhart, Seth Grimes, Stephen Whitney, Ken Allen, Jim Douglas, Sarah Stella, Luis Almar, Thomas Jacob, Wei Li, Leandra Nichola, Taylor Dibbert, Aurelie Bush, Kevin Buchanan, Yajaira Garay, Enrique Garay, Pia Acol, Iris Antezana, Mr. Seid, Ms. Heysel, Erin Huband, Charles Huband, Teresa Baker, Dora Stephey, Margarita Perez, Anthony Murray, Kia Robinson, Margaret Sutton, Robin Hernandez, and John Anderson) for their tireless dedication and hard work.
If you are interested in volunteering us please contact us! www.smallthingsmatter.org

A belated shout out to Westland Middle School for their amazing donation of 705 brand new books and 414 handdrawn bookmarks for our Books for Bedtime Program on December 6, 2019. These students went above and beyond in creating a book drive challenge as part of their pre-Thanksgiving day of service. A picture is worth a thousand words and these photos say it all. Our deepest thanks to these caring students and to Rachel Woods/IB Middle Years Programme Coordinator for organizing this amazing effort. The books will be used at a school-wide book distribution at a Title I School in the coming months. Thank you for your kindness!!!

STM had a great time wrapping for donations at Barnes & Noble. Our thanks to our amazing members: Aditi, Solyana, and Noah for wrapping the many packages today, greeting customers with a smile, and helping share about our food distribution, literacy, and crafting for charity programs. Our thanks to Patrick Hatcher for squeezing us in!

We had a great time decorating wood ornaments, wrapping socks for the elderly at Meals on Wheels of Takoma Park, and chatting with our neighbors from the Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington while drinking hot chocolate and apple cider complements of the TPSS Co-op on December 18, 2019. Our thanks to STM members Ocean, Noa, and Hadley for helping the kids and to all the children and their parents who braved the cold to join us in giving back to our community, and to the Co-op for all of its kindnesses.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Winterfest event on Saturday, December 14. Our deepest thanks to all the wonderful artisans and vendors (special thanks to those of you who donated items for our silent auction), STM members and student volunteers who led the kids crafting tables, Bach to Rock Bethesda, MD Glee Club for starting off our day in song, the Minority Scholars Program of Walter Johnson who giftwrapped presents for our families in need at Rolling Terrace ES, Maria Carzon who donated her facepainting and balloon talents, Einstein Bros. Bagels for donating bagels, TPSS Co-op for donating coffee, and to everyone’s favorite–Santa!

STM had a great time wrapping for donations at Barnes & Noble. Our thanks to our amazing members: Caitlyn, Aditi, Marion, Sahana, and Solyana for helping the customers and sharing our mission and to Patrick Hatcher for including us. See you again next year!

Our thanks to Aurelie Bush and sons Sam and Zach for running our custom ornament table at Sandy Spring Museum‘s Family Holiday Party on December 8, 2019. The funds they raised will go towards purchasing books and supplies for our many projects. We will be doing this again at our Winterfest Arts and Craft Show this Saturday, December 14 at TPMS from 10-4pm. Thanks!

STM had a great time wrapping for donations at Barnes & Noble. Our thanks to our amazing members: Adrienna, Brienna, Mete, Sam, and Aditi for helping the customers and sharing our mission and to Patrick Hatcher for including us. We will be back on December 12 and hope to see you then!

STM had a wonderful time at the Takoma Park Alternative Gift Fair on December 7, 2019. If you couldn’t make it out today please shop online here: https://tinyurl.com/2019AGFShoppingList5
Our thanks to our wonderful members: Koji, Jacob, and Lana, to everyone who stopped by to speak with us and to the wonderful organizers Mimi Ikle-Khalsa, Jim Baird, Geoff Maxson, Sat Jiwan Ikle-Khalsa, Steve Smith, Steve Whitney, and Jim Groves for all their amazing work! We are so very grateful for your support! #kindnesswww.smallthingsmatter.org

Our thanks to the lower school students at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School for making 60 hand-tied fleece scarves for our Kokua Foods Families. These will definitely keep them warm in more ways than one during the winter. Thanks to the 2 students that presented our work and to Michelle Marquardt for the kind invite.
If your school or business would like us to come out and host a charity crafting event for you please contact us! #kindness