History

In 2001, Dr. Mark Bergel was working as a health professional and part-time professor when he volunteered to deliver food to impoverished residents in the Washington, D.C. area. He was startled by the depth of poverty, poor health, and general inequalities he witnessed in the region. As he went home-to-home distributing food, he met families living without a secure food supply, without beds on which to sleep, and without access to basic health and wellness information.

With these families in mind, Dr. Bergel began discussions with social workers, shelter managers, school personnel, and nonprofit leaders in the region about creating an organization that would develop programs to address the "whole person" - programs that would not only tend to people's tangible needs (e.g., furniture and home goods), but also to their "inner needs" (e.g., stress management, financial planning, and healthy self-esteem).

A Wider Circle was founded in October 2001 and began delivering programs in February of 2002. That year, we served 1,081 individuals, and by 2009 that number increased to over 15,748. As of April 2010, A Wider Circle has served more than 50,000 children and adults.

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