Powered by Partnership: Meeting Rising Hunger Together with Adventist HealthCare

In 2025, food insecurity across Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties continued to rise, with many families seeking assistance for the first time. For parents trying to stretch a paycheck, seniors living on fixed incomes, and neighbors facing sudden job loss or unexpected medical bills, the hardest part isn’t just the lack of food. It’s the uncertainty of not knowing where the next meal will come from.

Thanks to Adventist HealthCare’s 2024 Community Partnership Fund, So What Else was able to respond quickly and consistently to this growing need. This grant strengthened our Emergency Hunger Relief Program, allowing us to sustain weekly food distributions across more than 80 community sites and expand emergency home deliveries for families without reliable transportation. Whether a family could get to a distribution location or needed food brought directly to their door, Adventist HealthCare’s support helped us meet them where they were.

At So What Else, we believe accessing food should never come with extra hurdles. With this funding, every household that contacted us for food assistance received help with no barriers, no paperwork, and no questions asked. That simple and fast approach matters when families are already carrying heavy stress.

As demand increased throughout the year, our team prioritized direct food distribution so vulnerable neighbors including children, seniors, immigrant families, and individuals with disabilities did not go without nutritious food. Through our food access model, we were able to keep nutritious options moving into the communities that needed them most, including fresh produce and other healthier staples, while also rescuing surplus food that might otherwise go to waste.

We are deeply grateful to Adventist HealthCare and the Community Partnership Fund for investing in this work and standing with our community during a critical time. Their partnership helped ensure families had the food they needed when they needed it most and helped So What Else keep showing up, week after week, with care and consistency.