What a beautiful organization Martha's Table is!…read more Martha's Table provides access to healthy meals, fresh produce, and offers education programs for communities. We have an ongoing partnership where bags of groceries are delivered to our families - they're filled to the brim with fresh produce and items that can help create a healthy and a balanced meal. There are volunteering opportunities and other ways that you can get involved and give back. The staff here are super friendly and welcoming, and the organization runs like a well-oiled machine - super efficient and on point! Thank you, Martha's Table, for existing! +volunteering opportunities available! +friendly staff

[Part of Giving Tuesday 2019]…read more I can only write from the perspective of a volunteer/donor, but Martha's Table seems to have a strong mission towards helping children and families in the DC area. Our class wanted to organize a clothing/food drive, and Martha's Table seemed to have the most bang for your buck. You can always donate in liquid like every other organization, but not as feasible for someone on the student lifestyle. There's plenty of drop-off locations for clothing and baby items across the city. If you can give food items like canned and dried goods, you gotta go to their Maycroft location on Columbia Rd NW. Easy to just reserve a 15-minute appointment on their website and drop off our load. I see their trucks all around the city serving the community - here's to hoping everyone's littles go a long way.

Multiple calls to have doctor contact me go unanswered. Told prescriptions were called in but…read morepharmacist did not have them. A medication previously covered is suddenly not. I feel like I am putting them out by asking for a call back to solve the issue. If I was not desperate I would go elsewhere. Turns out the insurance needs a doctor's authorization to fill my prescription. Two days, no call back. Just spent 42 minutes on hold for someone to say that the doctor got my message and she will let her know that I called to follow up. I have 2 days worth of medication left. I seem to be the only one concerned about this. The feeling that I am bothering them by asking is pretty consistent and universal. Doctor finally called insurance and I went to pick up the prescription. WRONG DOSAGE. She fixed it in a couple of hours but what if I had not noticed. The only reason I did notice was because the pills looked different. I get that they may be understaffed, but this is people's heath we are dealing with here. I have to ask myself how they would feel if this was happening to them or a loved one.

In 2014, I donated food from an office party to Bread for the City. There was more than I could…read morehandle and I wanted to share it with people who needed it. The next day, the coordinator called me at work and blasted me for donating "used food". She said she threw it all out. I was doubly offended and upset: #1, that the food (and my time) was wasted. (I would have kept the food myself, or donated it to an organization that appreciated it.) #2, that she was nasty enough to cuss me out for trying to be nice. When I contacted the officers of BFC to complaint about her unprofessional behavior, they all gave me insensitive, mechanical responses. I then asked the executive director to remove me from their mailing list. He promised to do so, but I am still getting their junk mail, 2 years later. One of the sleaziest charities I've ever encountered.

Cheap and in a safe neighborhood that was easy to get to and fairly cheap from anywhere downtown…read more The people were all nice to me and i felt comfortable here. As far as hostels go it doesn't have a lot of amenities or activities that aren't Quaker related but whatever...it was cheap and safe.

I loved it here. Everyone was super friendly in the house, it was a great community type of place…read more It's completely affordable and in an awesome safe location. Everything is clean and the house has a lot of New England charm. Plus there are lots of shops, restaurants, and bars just a few blocks away. I definitely would stay here again and recommend it to others.

DC Dream Center is the pride of Ward 7. It's right off of Pennsylvania Ave in a beautifully…read morerenovated building and is a community center/non-profit providing after school programs and other activities to the neighborhood. When you walk in, two very friendly volunteer front desk people greet you with a genuine smile. There's a lobby area with seats and to the left is a chalk board to write out your dream (hence the name). As you walk up the stairs, you'll pass classrooms and then a giant gym. If you go to the top of the building, there's a beautiful rooftop deck overlooking the city (you can see the Washington Monument and the US Capitol Building). DC Dream Center is the heart of our neighborhood!

I'm extremely impressed with this community center. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The…read morecenter offers many services to the local area including a youth mentoring program and after-school program. And, there is a food pantry along with prayer breakfasts and "Reconciliation Lunches". They even offer employment assistance for those needing help finding a job.

There are two parts to DC Central Kitchen at Buzzard Point. The first part is a full center where…read morepeople can volunteer to help pack food, etc. The facility is newer so it's clean and nice. There's even a lobby for volunteers with cold water, places to sit, and more. The second part is a cafe that's open every day that sells coffee drinks, food, and snacks. I ordered the chai latte with an espresso shot and it was strong and tasty. They also sell sandwiches, lunch deals, Just Tea, and more. There's plenty of seating inside and a few seats outdoors along the sidewalk.

Great option for breakfast today! I enjoyed the steak, egg, and cheese bagel--came hot! Great…read morecoffee options, too. Enjoy!

If you're a LGBTQ teen considering checking out SMYAL (Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League),…read moredo! SMYAL is so many things. A drop-in center for LGBTQ youth (ages 13-21). A youth leadership initiative. HIV testing, education, and outreach. A computer lab. A well-stocked kitchen. Peer-to-peer support groups. Movie nights. Friends who know what you're going through. A group of professionals who advocate for LGBTQ youth in schools, shelters, etc. A backyard. A repository (at least back in the day) of "There's more to love than boy meets girl" stickers. A great place to volunteer. When I was in high school, this is what it was to me: I have no clue how I found SMYAL. Presumably I googled (or Yahoo'd or AOL'd or whatever it was fifteen year-olds did back in 1997) something like "gay youth Washington DC." Shortly thereafter, my then-not-yet-first-girlfriend and I took the Metro to Eastern Market (my parents thought we were headed to Politics & Prose) and walked the half block to SMYAL's youth center--a row house that looks totally conventional on the outside but is all rainbow-warm-fuzziness on the inside. But we didn't know about said rainbow-warm-fuzziness yet; instead, we nervously loitered on the sidewalk outside--so freaked out by the prospect of actually going into the house that we were suddenly holding hands for the first time. This happened because my then-soon-to-be-first-girlfriend's friend had given her a small, purple-ish "courage" stone that she was instructed to take out whenever she needed a little extra push. At that moment, we both seemed to need a little extra push and (conveniently) the only way for us both to hold the stone was..... Finally--and now with swarms of butterflies overwhelming the nervousness--we made our way up the pathway and tentatively knocked on the door. Once we crossed that threshold, we were happily greeted by one of the social workers as well as by the group of teens lounging around the living room area. Never again would I be freaked out by going someplace "gay." I'm not even sure why I was freaked out that first time--I was already "out" to my camp friends, my school friends, my teachers, the headmistress at my Catholic high school...... Maybe we were freaked out because SMYAL is the first place we'd been where there was a group of other LGBTQ kids plus a crew of amazing adults selflessly invested in giving us a safe space amidst the world's many meannesses. Everything--both the good (like holding hands with a girl) and the bad (like having one's parents disown one for holding hands with a girl)--suddenly seemed so much more real. And as it turned out, a lot of other kids were just as terrified as we'd been when we first showed up on SMYAL's doorstep. We'd come for the Saturday morning discussion groups (these are on weeknights now), in which 8-12 of us would gather in one of the meeting rooms and discuss whatever was on our minds--family issues, school, STIs, sexual violence, multiple oppressions, romantic interests..... The groups were moderated by adult volunteers and discussions were invariably constructive (as well as initially revelatory in a face-to-face "I'm not the only one?!"-sense). We continued attending groups for months and months, and Saturday afternoons were often spent with SMYAL friends wandering the National Zoo, lunching in Dupont, checking out Eastern Market, etc. I did activities through SMYAL (bake sale fundraiser outside of Lambda Rising (RIP), NOW Lesbian Rights Summit, float-building for DC Pride, Dyke March, etc) until I went off to college. The organization was also supportive when I started a GSA at my high school. Everywhere needs a place like SMYAL, especially for kids like my friend "J," who trekked to SMYAL every Saturday from an isolated town in Virginia only after being betrayed by the one person he'd previously felt it safe to come out to--a middle-aged pedophile he'd met online. (But to end on a happier note: after they both ended up at Smith, my first girlfriend and a girl we'd befriended at SMYAL ended up getting married.) To learn more about SMYAL, check out the website (www.smyal.org) and the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/SMYAL). Also check out their list of DC-area LGBTQ resources pertinent to both youth and adults (http://smyal.org/admin/Editor/uploads/Local%20LGBT%20Resources%20for%20Aging-Out%20SMYAL%20Youth%202009-Nov.pdf).

My experience at SMYAL has been awesome,SMYAL given me great opportunity to go on trip and to meet…read morenew people. SMYAL is a great for people who need a place where they can just chill and not have to wear about the pressers of everyday life.

Awesome day in DC, sunshine , music and international food venues…read more Looking for Pizza, Bombay street food, or standing in line for the Shakespeare costume sale....stop by!

Barracks Row Main Street is one of the oldest main streets in all of Washington, D.C. Starting at…read morethe Eastern Market Metro, it extends down 8th Street SE passing many local businesses with many options for dining. There's also an alley across from Ambar that leads to a gin garden, murals and an art space. The main street hosts many community events, including a popular Fourth of July parade.

I bought two neckties after seeing Glenn Beck wearing a cool US Constitution tie. Aside from the…read moreover-pricing around $35/tie and almost $20 shipping, the things are MADE IN CHINA. Isn't that a major irony?!? Plus the customer service STINKS. Sorry to be so blunt, but when there was a snowstorm, they couldn't be bothered to send out any e-mails giving an update on orders or delays, and didn't ship orders out for a month. They enclose a "customer service" card with the shipment, but then they only have voicemail and it takes them a week to call you back, with no credit for shipping or the delays. Bottom line: a RIP-OFF! Vote with your feet! Maybe we should find the supplier (in China) and just order products from them directly, since enriching these guys is a waste of hard-earned money.