Bring Dinner Home Feeds the Multitudes While Helping Children Succeed in Newark

On Nov 22, 2017

What happens when a business leader and mother of five adopted children from Newark gets to chatting on the soccer field with the principal of an inner-city school?  Thanksgiving dinner for nearly 1,000 children and their families, plus much, much more.

Bring Dinner Home, a community outreach effort founded by Monica C. Smith and her wife Amy, along with Camden Street Elementary School Principal Sam Garrison, celebrated six years of making amazing things happen in one of America’s toughest school districts this past week.

This crucial Initiative to end child hunger and promote learning not only provided Thanksgiving dinner to hundreds of families, it also markedly elevated the academic performance of the school’s students by 6 percent.

“My entire company volunteers to help with this effort, and I’m so proud of them.  Their efforts are reflected in the growth of this event each passing year,” notes Smith, who is CEO and Founder of Marketsmith, Inc. “Bring Dinner Home been so successful that we hope to share the model and replicate it with other organizations and schools in the coming year.”

In addition to the annual Thanksgiving meal, Bring Dinner Home partners with numerous NJ-based businesses to provide much needed funding, supplies and support to the local community throughout the year. To date, the program has distributed over 4,000 coats and 3,500 books, nearly 1,000 packages of diapers and provided gift cards to more than 2,100 families.

Last year, BDH funded the school’s STEAM Room, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Technology), which is a program for early childhood learning, as well as the Camden Cares Room, to support families with services like free laundry machines, diapers and school supplies throughout the year.

This has been so well received by the local community, the school will now host a Family Flea Market once a month so families can “shop” (free-of-charge) for clothing and other necessities.

This support is especially critical in light of recent funding cuts: the overall budget for the school has been cut by $4 million in the last 6 years. In fact, Smith’s next goal is to work with local colleges and universities to source student teachers for the school in the hope of training the next generation of educators.

“I believe those of us who have found success owe it to this world to make it a better place. Every child deserves to be fed, safe and educated,” says Smith.

All members of the Marketsmith staff are involved in the effort – a part of their commitment to global citizenship and an integral part of the firm’s mission, which is “To do great work, so we can do good things.”

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