ABA Franchising Forum Helps Baltimore's Needy
BALTIMORE — A day after the 34th annual American Bar Association Forum on Franchising came to a close, a record number of the nation's franchise attorneys stayed in town to prepare meals with Baltimore's Moveable Feast organization to help the community's homeless and needy.
Some years ago, the Women's Caucus of the ABA Forum on Franchising instituted an annual community service event. Scheduled at the end of the each American Bar Association Forum of Franchising annual conference, the event has become one of the event's popular parts.
This year's event drew a record turnout early on a Saturday morning to benefit Moveable Feast. The organization serves home-bound patients suffering from HIV, breast cancer, and other conditions. It also operates a medical transportation service for HIV clients, and trains entry-level workers for a career in the foodservice industry by holding a 12 week course and assisting in job placement.
The Baltimore event was attended by a cross-section of franchise attorneys who cooked, packaged, and cleaned with an efficiency that impressed the head chef. After finishing their lot of meal preparations, the group of attorneys and their family members met with the head of the facility.
Besides the work, there were moments of fun. Australian attorney Stephen Giles found time to find a stray football and initiated a brief impromptu demonstration.
Recent initiatives by Moveable Feast have resulted in expansion of meal service to homeless shelters and transitional shelters, along with a re-entry program for non-violent offenders to become productive members of the community, hiring of licensed nutritionists to counsel patients, and the charity is seeking funding to expand services to breast cancer patients needing transportation.
Operating out of a 20,000 square foot block-long facility, Moveable Feast relies on volunteers to help prepare 60,000 meals each year. Last year 11,853 volunteers donated 51,586 hours of time. The professional kitchen on-site comprises 2 rooms with modern equipment and walk-in refrigerators and freezers. Reliance on volunteers and supervision by professional chefs has enabled Moveable Feast to prepare and deliver a full client menu (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for $5.41 per day.
Those wishing to make a donation may do so here.
Additonal photos of the event are posted here.
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