As president of Classic Concierge Inc. and an active board member of the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) of Metropolitan Washington, Tony Curtis was not looking to take on any new responsibilities.
But one tour of Covenant House Greater Washington (CHGW) four years ago changed all that.
“I fell in love with the place, everything about it,” said Tony.
One moment during the tour really stood out for Tony. “There is a food pantry on the first floor,” he said. “Shelves of neatly organized supplies, with cereal, flour, pastas, soups. I was told the food was not only for the young people at Covenant House, but for the community as well, which I thought was really great.
“While I was there, a young man was dropping off some food he had purchased and decided to personally deliver. We spoke a little bit and he seemed to know a lot about Covenant House. I learned later that he was a former Covenant House resident. He was now in college thanks to support from Covenant House, and he was on his semester break and just wanted to come back to give back. He was dropping off cans of soup and bags of pasta. A beautiful, selfless act I’ll never forget. That was when I started to feel like this may be a really special place and I might want to be a part of the work being done.”
Tony started by organizing food drives, collecting from his personal network and through the AOBA to bolster the supplies at the food pantry. “When I would go food shopping for myself, I would find myself thinking about what the food pantry might need and shop for the young people at Covenant House,” said Tony. “During the height of the pandemic, when the need was so great and the young people could not eat in large groups, I would buy meals in individual servings and bring them over to the food pantry.”
Tony didn’t stop there. He organized larger holiday food drives with the support from AOBA. And when he was asked if he would consider joining our Covenant House Greater Washington board of directors, he did not hesitate.
“I was honored to be asked,” said Tony. “The goal of Covenant House is to do what we can to end youth homelessness. Covenant House is the best organization I have come across. They treat each young person like they are a part of our family, our community. Over the past four years, I’ve had the great opportunity to meet more of the young people at Covenant House. They have been through a lot, and yet they are so mature and strong, much more so than I remember myself being at their age. They inspire me.”
Last year across all of our Covenant House programs, we provided 690,000 nights of housing to young people experiencing homelessness at the same time that the COVID pandemic obliged us to increase our meal provision by 75%. We know that the food insecurity unleashed by the COVID pandemic is not over and that it is so important to young people overcoming homelessness to know where their next meal is coming from.
“The food pantry at CHGW is a practical response to a real need,” said Tony. “But it’s more than that. It is a place of community, a place that provides stability. I will never stop being a part of this work, and I’m humbled that these young people allow me to be a small part of their journey.”
