Amazon Donates $155,000 to Support New Food Services in Arlington

Food For Neighbors celebrates the generosity of Amazon, a Community Champion joining the fight against teen food insecurity. The donation comes as Food For Neighbors works to roll out its programming to Arlington Public Schools, with Wakefield High School, Arlington Community High School, the Arlington Career Center, and Gunston Middle School being the first four schools to receive services. The funding will help Food For Neighbors to establish and initially stock new food pantries in these schools with products from Amazon Fresh. Funding will also support Food For Neighbors’ ongoing operations to collect, sort, pack, and provide schools with thousands of pounds of additional nutritious food, giving students reliable nutrition during weekends and other times they lack access to free and reduced price school meals. Food For Neighbors is one of three local partners receiving support from Amazon to help fight food insecurity among students this back-to-school season.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Amazon,” shared Karen Joseph, Founder and Executive Director of Food For Neighbors. “We are currently supporting student food pantries at 34 schools in Northern Virginia and plan to continue our expansion into more schools. Business partners like Amazon allow us the ability to say ‘Yes’ when a new school requests our services.”

Founded to provide supplemental food to secondary students who have few, if any, reliable food sources other than school meals, Food For Neighbors will be bringing its Red Bag Program and associated Pantry Program to Arlington Public Schools. The heart of Food For Neighbors is its Red Bag Program, which holds five food and toiletry collection events throughout the school year. This program mobilizes individuals to shop for shelf-stable items and set them on their doorsteps for collection. Volunteers, organized by neighborhoods, collect the donations and bring them to central locations, where they are sorted and delivered to participating schools. At the schools, social workers, counselors, and/or family liaisons identify students in need and distribute food and/or limited toiletries to them, mostly on a weekly basis. The Pantry Program supports this process by providing shelving, cabinets, and any other items schools need to store and distribute the food and toiletries. Last school year, the nonprofit gave schools over 88,000 pounds of food and toiletries, and, with the help of Amazon and new Red Bag donors in the Arlington area, the nonprofit hopes to grow this generous amount during the 2022-2023 school year.

Food For Neighbors is working closely with the Arlington County Department of Human Services and Arlington Public Schools to make the rollout a success. By distributing resources through schools, Food For Neighbors provides easy access to a reliable, nutritious food source. Removing the obstacle of hunger adds immensely to the quality of life of students, who then have the opportunity to focus on their education and relationships. With less pressure to work long hours to provide for themselves and/or their families, students can remain in school. While there, they are also better able to stay focused, as hunger is not interfering with higher thinking. Food For Neighbors empowers children to live healthy lives, where they may thrive and succeed in school. Longer term, being better students helps them become successful members of the community, which lifts up everyone.

Amazon Fresh is equally enthusiastic about partnering with Food For Neighbors and lifting up the Arlington community as a whole. “Amazon Fresh is committed to being a great neighbor, and it is important to us to support students in elementary, middle, and high school so they have the food they need to succeed,” said Amazon Fresh district manager Jim Gillespie. “We are proud to expand the already excellent work Food For Neighbors, Abingdon Elementary, and DC Food Project are doing throughout the HQ2 area to help alleviate food insecurity for thousands of children and their families.”

The assistance to Arlington Public Schools through Food For Neighbors is just one of many projects that Amazon is pursuing in support of the communities it is proud to call home. Since 2018, Amazon has committed more than $34 million in total investments to local nonprofits, community groups, public schools, and businesses throughout the HQ2 region. This includes both monetary and in-kind donations to organizations focused on racial equity, sustainability, education, and food insecurity. To learn more about Amazon and its impactful philanthropy, visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/impact/community.

“Amazon’s wonderful partnership will help us make a huge impact in the community,” shared Joseph. “A Director of Student Services in one of the schools we currently serve has stressed that our reliable food programming not only feeds students’ bellies, but it also nourishes their souls. As she best describes,‘It shows people in our community that you are seen; you are heard; you are not forgotten. You matter.’”

Food For Neighbors relies heavily on the community spirit of its 2,000 food donors, over 1,600 volunteers, and many partners, like Amazon, to make a direct, positive impact on the lives of students. Red Bag food and toiletry donors as well as hands-on volunteers are especially needed in Arlington at this time. To get involved with Food For Neighbors, visit https://www.foodforneighbors.org/get-involved/. To learn more about becoming a partner, big or small, visit https://www.foodforneighbors.org/partners/ or contact Renee Maxwell at renee@foodforneighbors.org.