Plenty to Eat is housed at the Academy of Hope Public Charter School in Ward 5.  Food is donated or purchased at cost through a partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank. 

Food is distributed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on a first-come, first-served basis. Our current distribution can last about 1-2 weeks per family. We’d like to increase our distribution so it covers at least one month for each family.

Rent is donated by the Academy of Hope and all labor to procure and distribute the food is currently volunteered. Plenty to Eat has raised funds in the past through a GoFundMe page, Facebook, and by direct solicitation. In 2018, Plenty to Eat (PTE) served 980 individuals. Currently, we are feeding 80-120 people each month. Each recipient of the PTE program has their own unique story. We serve single parents with 2-4 children in their home, individuals who live in a home, and individuals who are homeless.

Plenty to Eat (PTE) is a 501c(3) and was founded in 2018 by Washington DC native Connie Williams. She was determined to address what she saw as the ongoing hunger and health challenges of DC residents, including many of her friends and neighbors.

Connie struggled with hunger throughout her life as a child. When she was just a teenager, Connie was raising a daughter and lived in constant fear of wondering where the next meal would come from. She had a full time job, and was a recipient of the SNAP program, but it was not enough to provide healthy food every day for her daughter and herself. Connie finally decided she needed to take some risks and do something different.

Connie went online to research how she could start an organization to feed others. She saw an opportunity not only to provide food to those in need but to educate the community about how important diet is in maintaining good health. 

It was then that Connie discovered she had a strong entrepreneur spirit. She was determined to provide food security to low-income families and single persons. While some families may receive SNAP benefits, the amounts allowed generally do not meet the daily dollar amount of food necessary to nourish individuals for the entire month. The 2019 USDA Cost of Food Plan 2019 states for example, that a woman between the ages of 19-50 needs roughly $7 per day just to afford low-cost meals. This does not mean the food will provide the basic nutrients needed for good health. 

Plenty to Eat provides nutrition through a pantry of non-perishable food items such as canned vegetables, rice, cereal, beans, tuna fish cans, and more. The pantry feeds about 60-80 families on a monthly basis. 

The donations Plenty to Eat seeks will help offset the costs of purchasing food, toiletries, cleaning products, worker compensation (when necessary), and other operational costs. Most importantly, building funds means feeding more people. Plenty to Eat is aiming to deliver food to seniors and the disabled who are unable to pick up at the PTE location. 

Questions about the Plenty to Eat program or looking for ways to help? We’d love to hear from you!

Connie M. Williams, B.S.

Connie Williams’ food journey began long before she realized.

While she was still a child, her grandmother impressed upon her the delights of cooking through Sunday meals. Those dinners served as her first introduction to the power of food.

 In 2002, Connie earned her Associate in Culinary Arts from Stratford University. She began baking and decorating cakes, serving nutritious meals to students in public and charter schools, preparing healthy snacks to preschoolers, and assisting Registered Dietitians with special diets for hospital patients.

In 2010, Connie obtained certification as an instructor for the Food Handling License Examination. Empowered with the ability to teach safety requirements of all food levels and reduce food-borne illnesses and outbreaks through education, Connie offers individual and group instruction through her company “Safe Eaten,” which allows her to help build a safe community. She also obtained certification as a Master Gardner in 2013.

In 2014, she completed dual Bachelor of Science degrees at the University of District of Columbia, as a Nutrition & Dietetics and Nutrition & Food Science major. Nutrients in food can counter mental illnesses; additionally, the lack of certain nutrients in one’s meal plan can create an imbalance, which results in various unpleasant moods such as anxiety or aggression.

Connie believes that steadily educating people about healthy foods will improve their quality of life on a physical, emotional, and mental level.

In 2016, because of her strong desire to educate individuals on nutrition, Connie furthered her education, once again, by completing a Registered Dietetic internship at Iowa State and Certified Dietary Manager Certificate at Anne Arundel Community College. Currently, she is studying to take the board exam to become a Registered Dietitian. Her long-term goals include creating a plan that significantly reduces or eliminates chronic diseases.

In 2018, she opened the small food pantry “Plenty to Eat.” She serves approx. 80 - 120 people on a monthly basis. Currently only non-perishable food items are offered at Plenty to Eat.

Connie Williams instills food power.