StarKist Teams With Local Nonprofits To Feed 400 Families In Reston

RESTON, VA — StarKist, which recently moved its headquarters to Reston Town Center, demonstrated its commitment to the community by teaming up Cornerstones, and Feed the Children to distribute food for 400 families.

On Thursday, volunteers from StarKist and Cornerstones gathered in the parking lot at St. John Neumann Catholic Community in Reston for a drive-up food distribution event. They loaded up vehicles with bags of groceries, 25-pound boxes of shelf-stable food, 15-pound boxes of hygiene essentials, Avon products, and Disney storybooks.

StarKist's vision statement is that it's a socially responsible company that enables people to live a healthy lifestyle, according to president and CEO Andrew Choe.

"The reason for our vision statement is because we are so proud of our product, which is convenient and healthy," he said. "We thought about our product and how we could utilize our healthy and convenient product to help people."

StarKist employs about 60 people at its Reston Town Center headquarters and the food distribution was an opportunity for the company to show the community who they are.

"This is a great event for our employees, as well as helping the community to see we are here to help you and work with great organizations like Cornerstones and Feed the Children to hopefully magnify our effort going forward," Choe said.

"This is a great example of a new corporate citizen in Fairfax County giving back to the community and making an immediate impact," Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said, about Thursday's event.

As northwest Fairfax County's largest food pantry and assistant services provider, Cornerstones helped out nearly to 5,000 people in 1,347 households with 10,480 bags of food and toiletries in fiscal year 2021. The nonprofit anticipates demand for its services to grow, especially for low to moderate-income families with children and seniors.

Event's like Thursday's food distribution at St. John Neumann and its partnership with businesses like StarKist go a long way to helping Cornerstones assist those in need in northwest Fairfax County and raise awareness of the problem of food insecurity.

"It really tells the story about what the Reston community is all about," said Cornerstones CEO Kerrie Wilson. "How we all come together and we can bring awareness to the fact of how many children in Fairfax County Public schools maybe don't have a regular meal on a day that depend on those school meals. That's the beauty of it."

will be the children has been in existence since 1979 and has a vision of creating a world where no child goes to bed hungry.

Bob Thomas, chief corporate and external relations officer of Feed the Children, said on Thursday that since 1979 his organization has been focused on creating a world where no child goes to bed hungry.

"But to do that, we need partnerships, relationships, and corporate entities aligned with us," he said. "One of the strongest of those is StarKist and we've had the pleasure of working with them for over 13 years."

Partnering with local organizations like Cornerstones, Feed the Children is able to identify individuals in the community in need of food assistance and then provides support for events like Thursday's food distribution.

"We're not doing everything for everyone, but it's a step," Thomas said. "Four hundred families today, we'll find a way to do the next group and then experts the next group. Again, just to get them on their feet and make sure we're planting seeds, so that they can take another day and another step away from food insecurity."