The SAFE Center partnered with Spectrum Foods and Poultry, a University of Maryland, College Park alumni-owned company, to host a food drive benefiting SAFE Center clients. The food drive was the capstone project of participants in the SAFE Center’s seven-week Survivor Ambassador Internship program, which is a survivor leadership program developed and run by the SAFE Center’s economic empowerment and social services teams. The program helps survivor leaders learn and hone marketable skills such as research, project management, outreach, and public speaking skills; and culminates in a capstone project which gives participants the opportunity to use these skills to execute a project.
The food drive led by the survivor leadership program participants was a big success, providing close to 60 individuals—SAFE Center clients and their families–with boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables, dry goods including rice, flour, and sugar, and fresh chicken. A special thanks to Spectrum Foods and Poultry for generously donating the food to make this event possible, and to the Greater Washington Community Foundation which provided the funding for the stipends that allowed survivors to enroll and participate in the leadership program.