STM is increasing it’s distributions to help those in need. In addition to its regular monthly distributions at Hampshire Tower Apartments and Rolling Terrace Elementary School, we are offering fresh produce and pantry items to those in the TP community at TPSS Co-op Popups, additional distributions for the elderly at Essex House and Hampshire Tower Apartments, and others as we find out where we can serve. We are currently working to help families at Piney Branch ES, Takoma Park ES, Takoma Park MS, and Blair HS. If you know of a family or individual that would benefit from some free produce please contact us at 202-669-8550. Our thanks to everyone for their amazing support, to Imperfect Foods for increasing their donations of produce to us, to the TPSS Co-op for their support, donations and hands on help, and to our wonderful members for their amazing dedication and help!

Our thanks to STM member Jacob for making these fantastic hand-drawn bookmarks for us. We love the fact that he also made a set of Color Your Own Bookmarks! The children absolutely love to pick out a handmade bookmark at our school-wide distributions and we know that they will have lots of fun choosing from all his amazing designs.
Thank you Jacob!!! #kindness

STM Brooklyn is hard at work spreading kindness where they can. Victoria and Keanu gave out 100 free reusuable bags to customers at Key Foods Supermarket on March 3, 2020. Many of the customers were confused at first, but then responded with a smile when they realized what was happening. #kindness

STM had a great time sharing our literacy program with the kids during the TPES/PBES PTA meeting on March 3, 2020. The evening was filled with reading, bingo, soccer, and bookmark making! Our thanks to Andrian & Mylah (our newest members), Brigitte, and Lana! The kids definitely had an enjoyable evening thanks to all of your hard work and enthusiasm! #kindness

Small Things Matter received a wonderful donation of brand new books and handmade bookmarks from the Leo Club at Farquhar Middle School/Sponsor Karen DeYoung on February 18, 2020. Thank you for all the wonderful books and bookmarks! Did we tell you how much the children enjoy the handmade bookmarks? We can’t wait to share them at our upcoming book distribution this March! Thank you for all of your kindnesses!

Our thanks to Silver Spring Cares#CasserolesforaCause/ Heather Foley & Liz Brent and their wonderful volunteers for the amazing homemade casseroles and quiches (new this year!!). We shared 10 of casseroles at our Red Top Road distribution/Sawa Kamara and 17 of casseroles/quiches with our partners the Difference Makers/Bryan Goehring for their Takoma Park MS distribution this weekend. The families had fun choosing from baked ziti (beef and cheese, turkey and cheese, or broccoli and cheese) or a quiche (broccoli, ham, and cheese). We’ll be sharing more of these delicious meals with our Hampshire Tower Apartments and Rolling Terrace ES families in the coming weeks.
Thank you Silver Spring Cares, you really do!!!! 

🙂 #kindness

STM’s Kokua Foods Program distributed 10,819 lbs of fresh produce, dairy, bread, and grocery items to 300 families this February. We are happy to announce a new distribution location at Red Top Road/Sawa Kamara site manager. Special thanks to Councilmember Tom Hucker for coming out to our RTES distribution for a second time! Our deepest thanks to our members (Daniel, Sean, Lana, Jacob, Jacinto, Luis, Yeni, Gabriel, Seth Grimes, Stephen Whitney, Ken Allen, Jim Douglas, Sarah Stella, Luis Almar, Thomas Jacob, Wei Li, Leandra Nichola, Taylor Dibbert, Sawa Kamara, Aurelie Bush, Yajaira Garay, Josh and Yukiko Malkin, John Anderson), to our partners at Wegmans Germantown, Wegmans Woodmore, Imperfect Foods, TPSS Co-op, U-Haul Moving & Storage Takoma Park for donating the use of their truck, to The Nugent family for their weekly donation of a grocery bag of nonperishable foods, to our site managers Bryan Goehring & Difference Makers/TPMS, Doris Duarte /Hampshire Tower Apts and Helen Winder/WWES, to volunteers (Yacouba, Hadrian, Christopher, Alejandro, Everett, Adonis, Yeiny, Denia, Ashley, Joselyn, WWES Principal Daman Harris, Asst Principal Liz Collins, Dora Stephey, Abebe Kassaye, Jill Asato, Iris Atezana, Josefina, Chuck Huband, Pia Acol, Wendy Kent, Kevin Buchanan, Michelle Robinson, Kia Robinson), and to AmeriCorps The Choice Program at UMBC for their tireless dedication and hard work.
If you are interested in volunteering us please contact us! www.smallthingsmatter.org

Small Things Matter had a great time making Candy DNA with the students at East Silver Spring Elementary School’s STEM Night on February 19, 2020. Students learned about base pairing and then went on to use this to code a small stretch of DNA using licorice, marshmellows, and toothpicks. The students had fun twisting their creations into double helices before consuming them. 105 DNA helices were made! The night showcased many student projects and activities from a number of groups including Montgomery Blair High School Robotics Team 449, motor spinning art, and Koiner Farm. We can’t wait to come back next year!

Congratulations to Seth Grimes and Steve Whitney and all the other 2020 Azalea Awards winners!!! Seth and Steve won in the category of Neighborhood Volunteer for all their amazing work in the community! We are grateful for all of your hard work with Kokua Foods as well as all the many other projects you both are involved with. Our thanks to the Takoma Park Foundation for sponsoring this event and for the kind invite to attend today’s event.

Our thanks to the Fifth Graders at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School for partnering with us to make 187 handcrafted bookmarks on February 19, 2020. Your lovely bookmarks will be shared soon at our upcoming book distribution at Wheaton Woods ES and we will be using your monetary donation to purchase brand new books. Thank you friends for sharing your creativity and kindness with those in need. We were thrilled to work with you again and hope to see you again soon.