John Sarbanes: “For the past 12 years, Food and Friends has been providing an invaluable and unique service to people in Washington, DC…”

“For the past 12 years, Food and Friends has been providing an invaluable and unique service to people in Washington, DC, eight counties of Maryland and seven counties in Virginia, living with HIV/AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses. The group's network of over 700 volunteers and some 45 chefs, registered dieticians and other staff provide home-delivered meals and groceries, nutrition counseling, as well as friendship and care to more than 1,300 clients daily and the number of people seeking these services continues to grow dramatically. In order to accommodate the service demands, Food and Friends has embarked on a $6 million capital campaign to construct a new facility to serve its clients. We recognize that the committee was faced with many significant funding demands in this bill and limited allocations and could not accommodate the $2 million in funding provided by the House. We hold out hope that, as the Chairwoman and the other conferees negotiate with our colleagues in the House, you could find some way to provide funding needed by Food and Friends.”