Good hope
Don’t just take staff’s word about all the good Bread for the City can do.
A client speaking at the organization’s Good Hope Gala recently attested to the same thing. Quoting Ralph Ellison (“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness when greatness is expected.”), she thanked the organization for expecting more of her and helping her rise to greatness.
Even at a gala, an event that would seem the furthest removed from the lives of the people it serves, a genuine sense of community shone through. Far from a snobbish affair of elites clutching glasses of bubbly while admiring one another’s shoes, this was a night where clients, staff, friends and supporters ribbed one another and laughed, literally patting one another on the shoulder, fetching a chair or a plate of food for a friend, and having a good old time—while just happening to look sharp.
And as for the music? Now, you know Bread for the City wasn’t going to bring in some staid string quartet or pipe in easy-listening jazz. No, friends: DC’s very own Brass Connection Band, which often graces Dupont Circle and other corners of the city, topped off the evening with a loud, joyous salute to Bread for the City. Long after the food had been eaten and auction had been held—which, by the way, netted an astounding $770,000 toward anti-poverty programs—clients and supporters boogied the night away as the band played on.
Tara Campbell is a DC-based writer of crossover science fiction. When not writing, she likes tending to her own little balcony garden. Not exactly Bread for the City, but maybe Salad for One.