Food Donations Needed to Support Students

More and more Northern Virginia schools are reaching out to Food For Neighbors to help combat teen hunger. This includes Stone Bridge High School in the Ashburn area. Food For Neighbors will roll out services to this new school partner in November 2021, and, to make this happen, we need you and other community members to sign up to donate food just five times a year.

Donating food via the Red Bag Program is very easy!

• Request a Bag: This week, please visit https://www.foodforneighbors.o... to register as a food donor. A Food For Neighbors volunteer will drop off a Red Bag with a tag noting requested shelf-stable foods and five collection dates throughout the school year.
• Fill Your Bag: Shop for the listed foods.
• Leave Your Bag Out: On the requested dates, put your food donations in your Red Bag, and leave the Red Bag on your doorstep. A volunteer will collect your donations and leave you a new Red Bag for the next collection.

Your donations help Food For Neighbors provide students access to a reliable food source. This helps students remain in school, as there's less pressure to work long hours to provide for themselves and/or their families. It also helps them stay focused when they're in school, as hunger is not interfering with higher thinking. Longer term, the benefit of being better students increases the likelihood that they'll be successful members of the community, which lifts up everyone.

As one school social worker shared, “...having access to food to provide to teenagers who are hungry during the school day has been impactful in many ways. The Food for Neighbors program has allowed us to provide grab and go snacks to high school students who are often hungry. In addition, having food available for kids to grab in between classes and after school, has helped some kids focus more, has helped some kids when they aren’t feeling well and need to put something in their stomach, and has helped some kids with their mood. The most significant impact this resource has had is that it has helped destigmatize food insecurity as we open this up to all students….I can’t say it enough—Thank you Food for Neighbors for bringing together the community, who so often wants to help but doesn’t know how, and organizing the support, in such a way that so many families in need are being reached.”

Thanks to the generosity of area businesses, local organizations, and enthusiastic community members, Food For Neighbors now provides nutrition to students in 24 middle and high schools in Fairfax and Loudoun counties. The need is great, and your food donations will make a direct impact on students! Sign up to donate food at https://www.foodforneighbors.org/get-involved/request-a-bag/ and check out what goes on behind-the-scenes at https://youtu.be/PR740n_v8Ww.

Food For Neighbors: Hunger Is Closer Than You Think