In late November, we were excited to welcome Betty Fekadu to the Moveable Feast team as our new staff accountant. Having a background working in nonprofit accounting, she brings a wealth of knowledge to Moveable Feast’s finance department. Betty spent four years working in finance at The Arc Montgomery County and then went on to work in corporate accounting. With a desire to return to the nonprofit industry, she was excited to be offered a position with Moveable Feast.

“It’s a blessing to know there are nonprofits such as this to help people who are sick and not able to feed themselves,” she says. “Where I come from, there are no organizations to help people like this.”

Betty was born and raised in Ethiopia and was the first from her family to move overseas. She moved to the U.S. in 2005. “The opportunity presented itself to me, and I took it.” She recalls how difficult the transition was for her to leave everything behind and learn a new language and adjust to a new environment without her family. “It was definitely scary,” Betty says. The challenges here were not the same as we face back home.”

When she was in Ethiopia, she spent a lot of time helping out with her family’s business. This experience led her to study finance in college. After she graduated from George Mason University, she immediately secured the position at The Arc Montgomery County.

With just over a month in her new position, Betty says she feels good knowing her work positively impacts the lives of our clients and helps the community. As a mother of three young children, she doesn’t have a lot of spare time on her hands. She says she enjoys cooking for her family and watching movies when her kids aren’t controlling the tv. She also finds comfort in cleaning and organizing her house and says, “… It clears my head.”

Here’s our first-ever Virtual Town Hall featuring several of the leaders of Moveable Feast. Learn how we’ve been able to continue serving our clients during the pandemic and our plans for future sustainability.

Even though Ride for the Feast 2020 transitioned to a virtual event,  190 riders rallied and raised $757,988 for Moveable Feast. Donations continued to be made until the end of August, and the site was taken down to transition to new software for next year’s event.

The Ride for the Feast Committee met in August to develop a plan for the 2021 Ride. Our tentative plan is for Ride 2021 to be a 1-day event on May 1, 2021, which will start and end at the Talbot Agriculture & Education Center in Easton. 

More information about event logistics will be released by Nov. 1. 

Radio host Francesca Presti talked with Moveable Feast’s Executive Director Sue Elias about changing this year’s Dining Out for Life to a virtual fundraiser. Listen to the interview.

By: Megan Knight Posted at 5:00 PM, Jul 21, 2020 and last updated 7:30 PM, Jul 21, 2020 BALTIMORE — COVID-19 has changed just about every facet of daily life, including the way non-profits raise funds. Moveable Feast’s Dining Out for Life event is no different. The fundraiser usually happens on one day each year, where participating restaurants donate a portion or all of the proceeds from lunch and/or dinner that day. But because the restaurant industry has taken such a hard hit financially due to the pandemic, Moveable Feast decided to change things up this year. The non-profit is asking people to donate on their own and continue to support local restaurants. Throughout the fundraiser, which goes until September 17, they will be holding #TakeoutThursdays live stream events for people to enjoy while they are eating in with takeout meals from restaurants. The next #TakeoutThursdays event is an online cooking class with dietitians from Moveable Feast, who will be grilling, making frozen treats and more. Moveable Feast started in the early 1990’s in Baltimore City to provide services to people living with HIV/AIDS. They have since expanded to 15 counties throughout the state and gives free meals to those who are dealing with chronic illnesses and are food insecure. Since the pandemic started, there have been no volunteers to help with the work but they have continued to prep and package about 8,000 meals a week for their clients. “We’ve gone from 150 volunteers every week to six kitchen staff and 10 administrative staff, so that’s quite the difference,” said Angie Kelley, the volunteer manager at Moveable Feast. And because so many of their clients are unable to leave the house due to the risk of contracting COVID-19, Kelley says their services are crucial. “We have continued to make our medically-tailored meals that are all catered towards their dietary needs, and essentially our healthy meals are part of what keeps them out of the hospital which is so important right now,” Kelley said. To donate to Dining Out for Life and see the #TakeoutThursdays live stream schedule, click here.

By Jennifer Franciotti

Moveable Feast is bringing their annual fundraiser online and is offering a new twist to help the restaurant business as well. Joining us to talk more about the dining out for life fundraiser is Executive Director of Moveable Feast Sue Elias.

View full article on the WBAL Website.