It is hard to believe that summer is almost over! While many of us were fortunate to take vacations, many of our neighbors continue to struggle to meet their basic needs. MUM staff and volunteers have been working hard to meet the significant demand for services amidst reduced county funding. We saw a significant increase in calls and visits to our office for emergency financial assistance and MUM helped a record number of clients in July and August, spending over $10,000 in July to support our neighbors in crisis. Since the beginning of our fiscal year on July 1st, we have provided eviction prevention assistance to 14 households, utility shut-off prevention and restoration funding to 15 households, and assistance with purchasing prescription drugs to one client. The average amount of assistance we can provide is $500, and we work in partnership with the county and other community partners to combine resources to address the significant sums that many households owe. 

MUM also provided over 35,000 pounds of food to 782 households in July and the first two weeks of August, over 20,000 of which was fresh produce and other perishable food. In August, we held our final mobile food pantry in Aspen Hill, where we also provided information on other sources of food for our clients. We continue to distribute fresh produce and shelf-stable food in our office pantry and to our Food is Medicine Program participants with the help of several wonderful volunteers.

Some of the increased demand for services stems from Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) funding changes due to budget cuts, including stricter eligibility requirements that make it harder for people to qualify for emergency financial assistance. The amount of funding available for food assistance providers has also been drastically cut. The article “Montgomery County food pantries struggle to meet need in face of limited county funding” captures well what we at MUM are seeing and experiencing in terms of demand for food assistance amidst reduced funding from the county, state and federal government.  

Amidst these challenges, we know we are having an impact when we make a call to pledge assistance and get a neighbor’s water or electricity turned back on immediately, as we have done several times recently. Thanks to support from the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Interfaith Works, Adventist HealthCare Community Partnership Fund, faith community partners and many individual donors, we are able to provide this much-needed emergency financial assistance. We appreciate your continued support and hope you will continue with us on the journey to help our neighbors to not just weather their crises, but to find sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.

Thank you!
Dayna Brown
Executive Director

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Highlights from the final Aspen Hill Mobile Food Pantry

We held our final mobile food pantry in Aspen Hill on Sunday, August 4, serving over 240 households on a very hot day. Over the last few months, we have provided information on other food distributions where our neighbors can go for food assistance. We are very grateful for the partnership we have had for many years with Aspen Hill Christian Church, which allowed us to use their parking lot for our distributions, even as they grew from less than 50 households before the pandemic to more than 300 households in the past year! We also could not have managed the mobile food pantry without the countless hours of the many volunteers who helped to prepare food for the move and distribution, helped to load and unload the truck, set up tents and tables, bagged food during the pandemic, registered new and checked in existing clients, distributed food to our neighbors, helped to load the truck and dispose of the trash and recycling, unload the truck at storage, and to enter the data from each Sunday.  Below are some of the many volunteers who helped so much that day and on so many days before and for whom we are immensely grateful!

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Thank you to outgoing MUM Board Members!

MUM appreciates – and couldn’t accomplish our mission without – all our volunteers, staff, and board members! THANK YOU! A special thanks to recently retired board members Jules O’Rear (Pictured above, left) and William Moore (Pictured above, right). Both have served MUM faithfully for years and contributed so much to MUM’s ability to serve our neighbors. Jules never missed a mobile food pantry, even during the pandemic, helping to load, unload and organize the food and supplies in all kinds of weather! Bill has always been a huge help with the Stamp Out Hunger campaign, with fundraising events and as a promoter of MUM among the Wheaton business community. We appreciate the huge contributions of time and effort that they have given to MUM for many years.

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Gratitude for MUM’s Corporate Partners

Macy’s is partnering with MUM to provide $1,500 in gift cards to clients with children to help them buy clothes and other supplies as they go back to school. Through this “Mission Every One” initiative, Macy’s is creating a brighter future with bold representation that empowers more voice, choice, and ownership for our communities, and is partnering with MUM to carry out this mission. The Westfield Wheaton Mall Macy’s store and team have been wonderful partners to MUM for many years and our clients with children have greatly appreciated the gift cards!

As the giving season approaches, we invite our supporters who work for companies like Macy’s and so many others that have corporate giving and donation matching programs to connect us to those opportunities, or to designate MUM for matching contributions.

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We Need Your Help!

As MUM continues to see increased demand for food, emergency financial services, and referrals for other services, we need even more help from volunteers. We particularly need volunteers who can regularly commit to help stock and help clients shop in our office food pantry, with picking up donated food, and delivering food to some of our food is medicine program participants. We have many other ways volunteers can help, so if you are interested, please fill out the MUM Volunteer Form, call 301-929-8675, or email office@mumhelp.org.