NoVA Students Don't Go Hungry Thanks To Assistance League Volunteers

HERNDON, VA — More than 50 volunteers spent Thursday morning packing bags of shelf-stable food as part of the Assistance League of Northern Virginia’s Weekend Food for Kids program.

Once a month, volunteers gather at space provided by Dominion Energy at its headquarters on Centreville Road in Herndon to pack 1,660 bags of food. When the packing is finished, Dominion uses its trucks to deliver the food to three Title 1 schools in Fairfax County and three in Prince William County. The Assistance League also provides grocery gift cards to a Title 1 school in the City of Alexandria.

“The same group of kids for the month will get a bag of this food, so that they get fed on weekends,” Assistance League President Gina Glenn said. “These children mostly get free and reduced meals at lunch and breakfast, but there's no food on the weekend. We’re trying to supplement that to make sure that they’re fed, so that when they come in on Monday morning, they are ready to learn.”

All of the Assistance League’s programs, including Weekend Food for Kids, are paid for via grants and financial donations. The nonprofit also relies on volunteers from companies like Dominion to help do the hands-on work.

On Thursday, Dominion’s volunteers were joined by employees of Sandy Spring Bank and Alicia Liddle, a relationship manager with Northwest Federal Credit Union.

More information about donation and volunteer opportunities at the Assistance League of Northern Virginia, including the Weekend Food For Kids program, is available online.

"We do a lot to support the community and we have partnerships that we enter into with different nonprofits," she said. "The Assistance League just applied to be one of our community partners, which means then we will be able to offer volunteer opportunities to all of our employees to provide support."

Each year, Northwest gives every employee 24 hours of paid time off so that they can volunteer in the community.

The Assistance League also receives help from the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce and recently joined the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.

Dan Kociola, a coordinator of electric distribution design at Dominion, has participated in the Weekend Food for Kids program for eight years. In fact, he was "roped in" as a volunteer his very first week.

"I think it's easy to forget that we live in an area with a lot of affluence," he said. "There's still a lot of people that are food insecure and there's still a lot of poverty around. ... It's really meaningful to help make sure that the kids have something to eat on the weekend."

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness of hunger in our local communities, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that 1 in 8 people face hunger. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.