STM Kokua Foods distributed 10,230 lbs of fresh produce, grocery, dairy, bread, frozen foods, canned goods and other nonperishable items to food insecure families this January 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, U-Haul Moving & Storage for donating the use of their truck, The Nugent family for their weekly donation of a grocery bag of nonperishable foods, Margie Billian for her donation of fleece gloves, The Elinoff family, The Degasperis family, and AmeriCorps The Choice Program at UMBC for volunteering with us. 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, Abigail, Jacinto, Luis, Yeni, and Gabriel) for helping with the distribution as well as giving out new books at TPMS and RTES, student volunteers (Yacouba and Hadrian), and adult volunteers (WWES Principal Daman Harris, Wendy Kent, Jeff Diamante, Seth Grimes, Stephen Whitney, Ken Allen, Jim Douglas, Sarah Stella, Luis Almar, Thomas Jacob, Wei Li, Leandra Nichola, Taylor Dibbert, Sawa Kamara, Aurelie Bush, Kevin Buchanan, Yajaira Garay, Enrique Garay, Pia Acol, Iris Antezana, Mr. Seid, Ms. Perez, Ms. Bonilla, Mr. Kassaye, Anthony Murray, Jill Nicolas, 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

Our thanks to Brownie Troop #34039 who made 3 large tied fleece blankets with us for the families at the The Children’s Inn at NIH on January 26, 2020. These lovely girls are learning how to think about what people need and how to fill that need with compassionate giving. They put alot of love and heart into making these blankets. The troop also collected canned foods to help serve our Kokua Foods families. Way to go!!!

We made some fun 2.25″ mirror buttons using Jean Gray Reed’s lovely animal designs. These will be used as a fundraiser for Lettuce Craft – Formerly Craftster! Hope they are a hit!

Our thanks to Kathy Jentz/ Washington Gardener Magazine for ordering some cute 1″ buttons for her upcoming #seedswapday event.

Making buttons is just one of the many ways we help spread awareness while raising funds for STM. Choose from round 1″, 1.5″, and 2.25″ buttons with a turnaround time of usually 1 week. Thanks!

STM had a wonderful time at the MLK Day evening celebration at Takoma Park Middle School on January 20, 2020. It was such a beautiful way to end a day of community service in honor of Dr. King with inspiring speeches, music, and a community dinner. Thank you Doris Duarte for recognizing all of our members (Aurelie Bush, Leandra Nichola,Taylor Dibbert, Sawa Kamara, John Anderson, Steve Whitney, Ken Allen, Jim Douglas, Seth Grimes, Wei Li, Amber Cameron, Thomas Jacob, Sarah Stella, Luis Almer, Yajaira & Enrique Garay, Jeff Diamante, Sam, Sam, Lana, Jacob, Abigail, Brigitte) and our many partners ( Imperfect Foods, Wegmans, Wegmans, TPSS Co-op, KOL Foods, Silver Spring Cares, U-Haul Moving & Storage, Bryan Goehring/Difference Makers) involved in Kokua Foods rescue efforts. Congratulations again on your well deserved Unsung Hero Award!

Our deepest thanks to everyone for coming out to celebrate MLK Day with us at the Montgomery County Volunteer Center yesterday on January 20, 2020 at the North Bethesda Marriott. Together we decorated and filled 350 toiletry bags to support and brighten the lives of those at Shepherd’s Table, Interfaith Works, and The Children’s Inn at NIH. It was great seeing our friends County Executive of Montgomery County Marc Elrich and Councilman Evan Glass, along with councilmembers Sidney Katz and Gabe Albornoz! Special thanks to our STM members and volunteers who helped the children and families, to our teens who collected 8 large boxes of toiletries over the summer, to our friends at Key West Crossing Dental Associates for their generous donation of 200 toothbrushes, toothpastes, and dental floss, to Daisy Troop #42051 for hosting a canned food drive for our Kokua Foods familes, and to everyone at MCVC (Melissa Jackson, Molly Callaway, LaShawn Rogers) for coordinating this amazing event as well as their generous grant used to purchase additional supplies (cloth bags, socks, hotel toiletries) for this project. #MLKDay#DayON25#youthservice#kindness

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.