Margaret Broome, a teacher with the Bridge Program at Martha's Table, gets a hug from 10-year-old Gissel Espinoza while Kevin Paniagua, 10, sits nearby. The need has only grown in the recession."It can be a swelling river with all the different tributaries feeding into it," said Lindsey Buss, president and chief executive of Martha's Table. "And the rain isn't stopping."
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Teacher Camilla Swann and student Khaliq Bennett make creations out of Play-doh.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Eric Sanchez traces his hand to make a personalized holiday card.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Development manager Kim Lyons, left, plays with Leah Simmons, Chase-Kennedy Williams and Damaya Gore. Martha's Table provides day care to children as young as 3 months old tand as old as four.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Volunteer Michelle Land helps out in the infant room. She puts Kaliyah Williams into her crib for a nap. Typically, Martha's Table gets three-quarters of its individual donations during the holidays. But, because of the recession, "Individual donors are the biggest question mark left for 2009," said Buss.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Lunch time gets a little messy for day care attendee Makai Frederick.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Teacher Sequoya Pollard shares an embrace and a laugh with Dakarai Davidson.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Participants in the teen program at Martha's Table laugh as they discuss relationships. Pictured here are Thaddeus Coates, 15, Monique Brevard, 16, Jerry Paz, 16, Isaiah Aladejobi, 17, Charles Stewart, 15, and Mohamed Diop, 16.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Teens gather after school and into the evening at Martha's Table to do homework and participate in workshops like this one. Here, Laura Mickles, a youth facilitator, engages them in a discussion.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Marie Breslin, a volunteer at Martha's Table, helps to pack some of the approximately 320 bags of food that will be distributed each week.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
At Martha's Outfitters, the organization's clothing distribution center and thrift store, Francisco Torres organizes racks of clothes.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
A volunteer hands out egg salad and peanut and jelly sandwiches from the McKenna's Wagon van operated by Martha's Table. She and other mobile soup kitchen volunteers served 109 meals, with some recipients going through the line multiple times.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Demetrios Recachinas and Martha Katz, both employees of Martha's Table, load one of the vans with food.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Deborah Thomas accepts the donations given to her in the alleyway behind Martha's Table. She was one of 232 people that waited in line on Thursday to receive bags of groceries, despite a light drizzle.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Sixth grade students from Fourth Presbyterian in Potomac check expiration dates and sort donated food into crates at Martha's Table.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Over two hundred people line up in spite of the rain to receive one of the bags of free groceries that Martha's Table gives out every Thursday. Alice Rivlin of the Brookings Institution told community leaders at a recent meeting that the downturn had worsened the socioeconomic divide in the city. There's low unemployment in Wards 2 and 3, she said, but in Ward 8 it's a Great Depression, it's 25 percent unemployment."
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
McKenna's Wagon, a mobile soup kitchen run by Martha's Table, serves hot meals to the hungry at three locations in the District.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Dozens of people wait for food at 5th and K Streets NW, a nightly stop for McKenna's Wagon.
Katherine Frey-The Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Text Editor Sarah Halzack
