Charity Sock Yarn Raffle

The TCCOC is proud to partner with Lollipop Yarn and The Knitting Game and Other Stuff podcast to bring you our first charity raffle. In addition to a beautiful sock yarn expertly dyed to produce amazingly stripy socks without have to worry about changing yarn, the winner will also be gifted Megan Wright’s newly published Charity Sock Pattern eBook. The eBook is a $15 value and comes with 5 wonderful sock patterns inspired by and written to help support various charity organization.

     Entering the raffle is easy. Just use the “Add to Cart” button below for a chance to win this wonderful gift set; each $5.00 donation will count as a single raffle entry. You may enter as often as you would like. The drawing for the raffle winner will be chosen at random and announced on the September 5th edition of The Knitting Game and Other Stuff. Entries will be accepted until 4 PM, 5 September 2012. The proceeds from this auction will go to the TCCOC to use in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. region to help the area’s homeless and disadvantage by providing food, clothes, school supplies and other services.

Thank you and good luck!

Thank you to all that donated and entered the raffle. The winner of the Lollipop Yarn sock yarn – simonamaloney

Restoring Haiti…Restoring Lives!

Totally Committed Community Outreach Center would like to announce our Restoring Haiti…Restoring Lives! benefit dinner hosted by Angela Bryant-Brown on May 19, 2012 at 8:00 PM at the Seabrook SDA Church , 8900 Good Luck Rd, Lanham, MD 20706.

TCCOC will host a fundraiser dinner to benefit our planned summer 2012 mission to Haiti as part of the continuing earthquake relief efforts. Join us for an exciting evening of Haitian food, music and entertainment while learning about the rebuilding of Haiti.

Other sponsors for the night’s festivities include:

  • Chantal Beauty Concepts
  • Serenity Health Spa
  • By Your Side Ministries

Ticket for the event are $40 in advance and $45 at the door.

For more information, please contact Chantal at (240)605-9027.

Working-age adults make up record share of US poor

Working-age adults make up record share of US poor – WTOP

By HOPE YEN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Working-age America is the new face of poverty.

Counting adults 18-64 who were laid off in the recent recession as well as single twenty-somethings still looking for jobs, the new working-age poor represent nearly 3 out of 5 poor people _ a switch from the early 1970s when children made up the main impoverished group.

While much of the shift in poverty is due to demographic changes _ Americans are having fewer children than before _ the now-weakened economy and limited government safety net for workers are heightening the effect.

Currently, the ranks of the working-age poor are at the highest level since the 1960s when the war on poverty was launched. When new census figures for 2010 are released next week, analysts expect a continued increase in the overall poverty rate due to persistently high unemployment last year.

If that holds true, it will mark the fourth year in a row of increases in the U.S. poverty rate, which now stands at 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people.

“There is a lot of discussion about what the aging of the baby boom should mean for spending on Social Security and Medicare. But there is not much discussion about how the wages of workers, especially those with no more than a high school degree, are not rising,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

Census numbers show that out of 8.8 million families who are currently poor, about 60 percent had at least one person who was working.

“The reality is there are going to be a lot of working poor for the foreseeable future,” Danziger said, citing high unemployment and congressional resistance to raising the minimum wage.

Continue reading at

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=289&sid=2531257

Donation Will Keep Capitol Area Food Bank Produce Free: DCist

Donation Will Keep Capitol Area Food Bank Produce Free: DCist
Good news: philanthropist William E. Conway Jr. donated $1 million to the Capitol Area Food Bankyesterday, ensuring that the metro region’s main provider of food for the poor would not have to start charging its clients for produce.In June, the Bank, which supplies food to more than 700 food banks and pantries around the region, announced that it would have to begin a 10 cents per pound surcharge for fruits and vegetables due to budgetary constraints. The Post reports that Conway apparently saw the news and figured that another million dollars — on top of a five million dollar donation he gave the Bank last fall — was necessary:

“I had fresh produce last night with dinner. I had blueberries this morning with my cereal. It’s a luxury for some people,” Conway said in a phone interview. “I wanted to try to help.”[…]

“I thought, if I’m going to try to solve one problem, we ought to really be working to try to solve another problem, too,” said Conway, who ranks 182nd on the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people, with a net worth of more than $2 billion.

Brantley said Conway’s donation will reimburse clients for any charges since the fee took effect at the beginning of this month and will buy the food bank another year to find a long-term solution, which may include new sources of funding and food.

If you feel inspired by Conway’s generosity, you can donate to the Bank here, or save them some staffing costs by volunteering your time.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@dcist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
Good news: philanthropist William E. Conway Jr. donated $1 million to the Capitol Area Food Bankyesterday, ensuring that the metro region’s main provider of food for the poor would not have to start charging its clients for produce.In June, the Bank, which supplies food to more than 700 food banks and pantries around the region, announcedthat it would have to begin a 10 cents per pound surcharge for fruits and vegetables due to budgetary constraints. The Post reports that Conway apparently saw the news and figured that another million dollars — on top of a five million dollar donation he gave the Bank last fall — was necessary:

“I had fresh produce last night with dinner. I had blueberries this morning with my cereal. It’s a luxury for some people,” Conway said in a phone interview. “I wanted to try to help.”[…]

“I thought, if I’m going to try to solve one problem, we ought to really be working to try to solve another problem, too,” said Conway, who ranks 182nd on the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people, with a net worth of more than $2 billion.

Brantley said Conway’s donation will reimburse clients for any charges since the fee took effect at the beginning of this month and will buy the food bank another year to find a long-term solution, which may include new sources of funding and food.

If you feel inspired by Conway’s generosity, you can donate to the Bank here, or save them some staffing costs by volunteering your time.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@dcist.com with further questions, comments or tips.