A local nonprofit is working to keep its tradition of serving holiday meals to unhoused people in the D.C. region, even as donations have slowed this season.
A local nonprofit is working to keep its tradition of serving holiday meals to unhoused people in the D.C. region, even as donations have slowed this season.
“Our goal for this year would be 2,500 meals on Thanksgiving, and then 2,500 meals again a month later on Christmas Day,” said Jay Herriott, founder of The 25th Project, a D.C.-area nonprofit that donates meals on the 25th of every month.
Herriott said the organization has noticed a slowdown in donations compared to last year. He suspects that is because of the recent 43-day government shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history.
Volunteers have been signing up, but those at The 25th Project have noticed “less food … less protein, less ham, less turkey, from what has been in years past,” Herriott said.
Still, he remains hopeful that donations will rebound. “We anticipate it picking up as everybody’s going back to work,” he told WTOP.
To donate food items or to volunteer, register on The 25th Project’s website. In addition to proteins, the organization is in need of side dishes and desserts. “We have a whole pie-cutting station,” Herriott said.
All food items must be fully cooked and brought to Burke Community Church on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. Volunteers can reheat food at the church, so items prepared in advance are acceptable. “As long as it’s completely cooked, then we can use it,” Herriott said.
Food plating begins at 8 a.m. on both holidays.
Burke Community Church is located at 9900 Old Key Mill Road in Burke, Virginia.
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Consumer Reports put a bunch of bonnets to the test and published a list of the ones they liked best.
How do you wear your hair to bed or for a nap?
Well, bonnets are an option and aren’t just for characters from “Little House on the Prairie” or Holly Hobbie.
Consumer Reports put a bunch to the test and published a list of the ones they liked best.
Ginger Cowles, a managing editor at Consumer Reports, said that during their research she learned hair bonnets are a big business.
“We did our research. There were 7.8 million bonnets sold on Amazon in the last 12 months alone,” Cowles told WTOP.
She said a team of six testers tested several bonnets over a two month span earlier this year.
Each tester has a different hair texture and each rocks a different hair style. Two had never worn bonnets before.
Test question one: Will the thing stay on all night?
But, at the same time, they wanted to know “did the band feel too tight when it was wrapped around your head?” Cowles said.
“Then, we also wanted to find out, do they leave a mark on your head?”
Additional test points included breathability when sleeping because, “if there’s heat being trapped in there, then that’s going to affect your hairstyle. So, if you have a silk blowout, that’s going to get those roots really curly,” Cowles said. “That moisture is going to be something that you probably don’t want for that style.”
Most people are familiar with premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, symptoms. But a Montgomery County, Maryland-based integrative gynecologist wants people to know more about changes that come with menopause.
Most people are familiar with premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, symptoms. But a Montgomery County, Maryland-based integrative gynecologist wants people to know more about changes that come with menopause.
The Other PMS: Menopause
Dr. LaKeischa W. McMillan writes about menopause in her new book, “The Other PMS.” (Courtesy Dr. LaKeischa W. McMillan)
Outside of the changes that come ahead of menstruation, integrative gynecologist Dr. LaKeischa McMillan said “there’s another PMS that we don’t talk about.”
McMillan said she coined the term “The Other PMS,” which is also the title of her book.
Known colloquially as “the change,” menopause is a significant middle-age hormone shift that impacts women’s health.
The ‘other’ PMS encompasses the changes surrounding the drastic life changes of perimenopause (which is the transitional phase) and menopause which LaKeischa said shows up “as everyday symptoms such as brain fog, weight gain, fatigue for seemingly no reason, itchy skin, ringing in the ears, dizziness.”
So, how do you know if you’re in menopause?
Patients who go 12 consecutive months without a period are “technically menopausal,” she said.
“I will have patients that come to me and say ‘well I haven’t had my period in six months, I must be menopausal,’” LaKeischa said. She tells such patients “No, ma’am.”
This designation is important, she said, because there are other things that could be causing symptoms that can be mistaken for menopause.
What if it’s not menopause?
“No period, no cycle, you’re not on hormone therapy, you’re not on anything else … and you have a postmenopausal bleed,” she said. “We need to evaluate the uterine lining and see what caused it.”
LaKeischa said there are other, sometimes more nefarious causes for menopausal symptoms.
“Was it a polyp, which is usually benign? Was it a fibroid, which is usually benign? Or was it the big bad ‘C,’ which is uterine cancer?”
LaKeischa talks more about the perimenopausal journey on her Hormone Hottie Hotline podcast.
One goal of DC Sweet Potato Cake is to celebrate the heritage and history of African American culinary delights that spring from this root vegetable not only during Black History Month, but year-round.
April Richardson, who has been in the baking business as co-owner of DC Sweet Potato Cake since 2009, says it’s her obligation and purpose “to figure out how to directly connect my company to historical roots.”
(WTOP/Liz Anderson)
WTOP/Liz Anderson
April Richardson, who has been in the baking business as co-owner of DC Sweet Potato Cake since 2009, says it’s her obligation and purpose “to figure out how to directly connect my company to historical roots.”
(WTOP/Liz Anderson)
WTOP/Liz Anderson
April Richardson, who has been in the baking business as co-owner of DC Sweet Potato Cake since 2009, says it’s her obligation and purpose “to figure out how to directly connect my company to historical roots.”
(WTOP/Liz Anderson)
WTOP/Liz Anderson
April Richardson, who has been in the baking business as co-owner of DC Sweet Potato Cake since 2009, says it’s her obligation and purpose “to figure out how to directly connect my company to historical roots.”
(WTOP/Liz Anderson)
WTOP/Liz Anderson
Throughout February, WTOP is celebrating Black History Month. Join us on air and online as we bring you the stories, people and places that make up our diverse community.
A stone’s throw from the White House, near 17th and K streets, sits a bakery that is focused on treats made with sweet potatoes as the main ingredient.
One goal of DC Sweet Potato Cake is to celebrate the heritage and history of African American culinary delights that spring from this root vegetable not only during Black History Month, but year-round.
“As a woman, as a person of color, and being in business and owning DC Sweet Potato Cake, it is my obligation, it is my purpose, to figure out how to directly connect my company to historical roots,” said April Richardson, who has been in the baking business as co-owner of DC Sweet Potato Cake since 2009.
“It is a product that came to me through my business partner, Derek Lowery. His mom, back in the day, used to make a sweet potato cake, and her sweet potato cake is the basis for our recipes,” Richardson told WTOP.
Part of their purpose is sharing how sweet potatoes became a staple among African Americans — starting in the past with provisions enslavers bought for the enslaved to eat during the trans-Atlantic journey. They purchased “yams, from West Africa to feed them throughout the journey.”
“And remember, the journey lasted for more than three months. And when enslaved Africans came to the U.S., after their replenishment of yams were gone, they found sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes became a staple in the enslaved African diet,” Richardson said.
Richardson also said there’s a lot of history in sugar, another key ingredient in their treats.
“Sugar cane farming was the toughest type of farming that an enslaved African had to endure — so much that the average life span of an enslaved African was 7 to 10 years on a sugar cane farm,” Richardson said.
So she worked to include sugar that originated from Black-owned sugar cane farms in the company’s cakes.
New to Retail
This is their first foray into the retail space. Since Richardson joined the company as a co-owner, their focus has been on manufacturing cakes and getting them into hundreds of stores around the D.C. area and on your TV screens on QVC.
“We decided to try something on QVC, which was the bourbon sweet potato cake,” Richardson said. “That became our number one seller. … There are six different iterations of a sweet potato cake here. And that’s our number one: a bourbon sweet potato cake.”
Their menu includes a variety of items including smoothies, salads and more. Sweet treats include cake shakes, sweet potato pie and banana pudding with layers of sweet potato cake.
“Most people know sweet potato pie. We are teaching people about the sweet potato cake. And once they learn, they are great students,” Richardson said.
“One little special secret about sweet potatoes … there are 400 varieties of sweet potatoes. Four hundred. It’s a lot — from the purple sweet potato with the purple skin, to the purple sweet potatoes with the white skin, to the red colored skin with the orange flesh … different shapes, different sizes. It’s such a fantastic vegetable to include in a very unique way,” Richardson said.
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