Halloweening for a Cause

Amid the fun of ghosts and goblins, residents of Metro Square paused to make a difference. Families in this 64-unit Herndon neighborhood hosted a food drive in support of Food For Neighbors, a grassroots nonprofit that provides supplemental food to students at Herndon Middle School, Herndon High School, and 20 additional middle and high schools in Northern Virginia.

Kristin Kellam, who coordinated the event, has been participating as a Food For Neighbors’ Red Bag Program food donor for some time. With two sons of her own, Kristin admits having a soft spot for helping children. She feels that Food For Neighbors is a wonderful local nonprofit that provides immediate benefit to students who struggle with hunger.

Karen and Mark Joseph launched Food For Neighbors to address teen hunger at schools where many students had few reliable food sources other than their weekday school breakfasts and lunches. While various programs had recently begun to address this concern at the elementary school level, they were too limited to address the large middle and high school populations. In 2016, Food For Neighbors began filling this gap via its Red Bag Program, which allows individuals to shop for nonperishable items at their convenience and to set them on their doorsteps for collection approximately five times per year. Volunteers organized by neighborhoods then collect the food and bring it to one of five central locations, where it is sorted and then provided to approximately 1,200 students from 22 participating middle and high schools in Northern Virginia.

Since Nov 2016, Food For Neighbors has collected over 112,300 pounds of food. The nonprofit now has over 1,200 households donating red bags filled with shelf-stable foods plus more than 650 drivers and volunteers variously participating in the food collection and sorting events. Thanks to these and other generous community members, Food For Neighbors also purchases additional food when supplies run low in between Red Bag Program events, and it provides grocery gift cards for students experiencing the gravest food insecurity.

Kellam added, “Our community as a whole has really enjoyed participating, and, because of the positive feedback and participation, we’ve decided any time we have a community function for Metro Square it’s also a great opportunity for us to come together and help the greater community around us. Our neighbors are fabulous and one of my favorite parts of living where we do.”

Food For Neighbors welcomes donations of food, volunteer services and support, and financial contributions to continue its important mission of ending child hunger. There are many ways for businesses, service organizations, foundations, and individuals to become involved— including hosting food drives. For those who are unable to shop or who are currently outside of the existing but growing service area, there’s even an option to donate via a Virtual Red Bag Program and/or Virtual Food Drive Program. To learn more, please visit https://www.foodforneighbors.org/.