Food For Neighbors Collects Over 17,800 Pounds of Food!

On Saturday, March 5th, Food For Neighbors held its fourth 2021-2022 school year Red Bag event, with huge food collections in five Northern Virginia areas: Falls Church, Fort Hunt, Herndon, Springfield, and Sterling. Thanks to generous community members, the nonprofit collected 17,811 pounds of food from 1,146 households. This food will help to provide food security to over 1,500 vulnerable students in 25 schools in Fairfax County and Loudoun County. During the event, Food For Neighbors Cofounder and Executive Director, Karen Joseph, recognized the nonprofit’s five-year anniversary and thanked the many Falls Church area volunteers and participating schools for their support.

“Our lead volunteer in the Falls Church area is our amazing Area Manager, Paula Prettyman,” noted Joseph. “Paula communicates regularly with Luther Jackson Middle School and Falls Church High School staff and heads a team of dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to battle teen food insecurity.”

Prettyman noted that the Falls Church area has a huge discrepancy between the “haves” and the “have nots”. For her, addressing food insecurity at the very local level made perfect sense—“from our community to our community.” She furthered that Food For Neighbors provides a very efficient platform that enables local volunteers to address food insecurity in a sustainable way. “All the people already doing this work are busy…. Food For Neighbors makes it easy. It doesn’t take a lot to do a lot with Food For Neighbors.”

Jenna von Elling, the Luther Jackson Middle School Pantry Coordinator, explained, “About 60% of the food that we have to offer our families every week comes directly from the Red Bag drives that we do with Food For Neighbors. The impact is huge. It means we get to ease that burden of stress on families a bit. My goal is for parents to feel confident that they will have enough food this week for their kids to thrive.”

The enthusiastic Falls Church area leadership team also includes Event Coordinator Kurt D’mello, Driver Coordinator Shannon Kentner, Red Bag Drop-off Coordinator Erika Grams, Falls Church High School Pantry Coordinator Teresa Lovelace, and volunteer extraordinaire Terri Radziewski. In May 2019, Falls Church held its first Red Bag event. There were 13 Red Bag donors, 2 volunteer drivers, and 132 pounds of food collected. The Falls Church area now has 328 Red Bag donors and 216 volunteers, and, on Saturday, there were 22 drivers out and about collecting over 5,300 pounds of food! To date, the Falls Church leadership team and their dedicated volunteers have enabled the area to provide 40,608 pounds of food to Luther Jackson Middle School and Falls Church High School.

At these schools, social workers, counselors, and/or parent liaisons connect food insecure students with the collected and sorted supplemental food as well as with grocery store gift cards, also provided by Food For Neighbors. The extra support gives students a fundamental tool to help them succeed, as they are then able to focus more on their schoolwork than on their hunger.

Joseph explained that, while Food For Neighbors mobilizes thousands of community members to help their neighborhood schools, the highly supportive school administrators, like Luther Jackson Middle School Principal Mike Magliola and Falls Church High School Principal Benjamin Nowak, and their dedicated school staff are key to the program’s success. “They make a tremendous effort to help students at their schools,” she noted. “They make additional time to find food storage space, identify students in need, and connect them with this resource. This builds their relationships and allows them to identify other needs the students may have. Food For Neighbors is happy to support this vital work.”

“We appreciate Food For Neighbors for working collaboratively with us to help provide for our families in need and allow us to run the pantry with autonomy,” shared Carolina Dotel, the Family Liaison at Falls Church High School.

“During the shutdown, some of our families could not come to the school because they did not have transportation, so we delivered to them,” noted Kate Lauderdale, a Food For Neighbors volunteer and ESOL teacher at Luther Jackson Middle School. “Families were always grateful. Mothers teared up. They were surprised about how generous we were…. I love being able to volunteer with Food For Neighbors. I love being a part of a community that supports its own. It’s a real way to help our families and neighbors.”

Also lending a hand were Fairfax County School Board members Laura Jane Cohen, Springfield District Representative, and Karl Frisch, Providence District Representative.

“Many of our families in FCPS have long navigated food insecurity and, unfortunately, the pandemic has made access to basic resources even harder for so many more,” noted Cohen. “I’m incredibly grateful to Food For Neighbors for rising to meet that need and help our community navigate this difficult time. Our students cannot learn on empty bellies, and Food For Neighbors helps make sure that our kids can come prepared to tackle whatever lies ahead of them.”

Frisch agreed, "Food For Neighbors plays a vital role in addressing food insecurity throughout Fairfax County. They go above and beyond to serve our communities and make a positive impact in the lives of many students and their families. Being around such caring and committed individuals is always a rewarding experience."

Food For Neighbors invites residents throughout Northern Virginia to join its dedicated team of food donors, volunteers, and financial supporters. Additional schools are requesting services, and the extra help allows the nonprofit to reach even more students. To make a difference in your local schools, visit https://www.foodforneighbors.org/get-involved/.

Food For Neighbors: Hunger Is Closer Than You Think

Complete group photo caption:

Many steadfast volunteers and supportive Fairfax County Public Schools representatives came together to make a difference. Pictured left to right are: Kristen Cunningham, Falls Church High School (FCHS) ESOL Department Chair; Kurt D'mello, Food For Neighbors (FFN) Falls Church Event Coordinator; Carolina Dotel, FCHS Family Liaison; Shannon Kentner, FFN Falls Church Driver Coordinator; Laura Jane Cohen, Fairfax County School Board member, Springfield District Representative; Terri Radziewski, FFN Falls Church Anniversary Celebration Coordinator; Karl Frisch, Fairfax County School Board member, Providence District Representative; Kate Lauderdale, LJMS ESOL Teacher; Karen Joseph, FFN Cofounder and Executive Director; Voula Smith, LJMS Special Education Teacher; Erika Grams, FFN Falls Church Red Bag Drop-off Coordinator; Mike Magliola, LJMS Principal; Paula Prettyman, FFN Falls Church Area Manager; and Lisa Hershaft, LJMS Social Worker.