On Wednesday, Nov. 23. participants of The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able reentry program will distribute hundreds of free, healthy, locally-sourced Thanksgiving salads to residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The event is sponsored by Good Food Works, a social enterprise of The Doe Fund that uses innovative vending technologies and mission-driven hiring to increase access to affordable healthy food and quality jobs in communities throughout New York City. Good Food Works is made possible thanks to generous support from Google.
For more than 30 years, The Doe Fund has provided nearly 30,000 of NYC’s most vulnerable with the opportunity to overcome addiction, homelessness, and recidivism while giving back to their communities. The Men in Blue — as Ready, Willing & Able participants are known throughout the city — clean 115 miles of streets through The Doe Fund’s Community Improvement Project social enterprise. This paid work is the first step in a program that also provides housing, support services, and career training in living wage fields to homeless and formerly incarcerated men. The Thanksgiving Eve Giveaway is just another way the Men in Blue give back to the community where Ready, Willing & Able began.
The event also marks the beginning of The Doe Fund’s Firesoul campaign, which will inspire individuals throughout the Holiday season to address homelessness with practical tools and resources, including connecting volunteers to the Adams administration’s Street Homelessness Advocacy Project and by downloading Ready, Willing & Able cards to give to individuals experiencing street homelessness. More details are available at doe.org/firesoul.