The Little Black Dress Initiative (LBDI) is a poverty awareness and fundraising campaign that underscores the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin’s commitment to building public awareness around hunger and poverty in our local community.

To coincide with Poverty Awareness Month in January, participating League members will wear the same black dress for five days to illustrate the effects poverty can have on a woman’s access to resources, confidence, and opportunities. During these five days, members will share local statistics about poverty and food insecurity on social media and in person and will ask for donations towards our efforts to fight poverty in North Pinellas County. Our goal for this effort in 2020 is to raise $27,000.

Any funds raised during this effort are strictly used to support our efforts to combat poverty in our community.  To date, our organization has used funds raised during this effort to provide over 2,400 “Pack-a-Snacks” – meals and snacks bags – to feed hungry students over the weekends at two of our local elementary schools.  We feed 60 children a week. In addition to the actual food we provide, our members have logged nearly 700 hours packing and delivering these meals. Funding from LBDI has also allowed us to deliver 58-holiday dinners for families in need, provide 108 holiday presents for Pack-a-snack recipients, and purchase over 1,540 books to give local students.