Assistance League Continues Ongoing Support for Students In Need

At the recent Weekend Food for Kids event, Assistance League of Northern Virginia again packed 1720 bags of nonperishable food in about an hour and delivered them to six Title 1 elementary schools: three in Fairfax and three in Prince William counties.

Helping to achieve such logistical magic were Assistance League members, Dominion Energy employees, Didlake associates, and community volunteers. Also attending for the first time was a group of Mechanical Engineering students from George Mason University. The nonprofit also provided grocery gift cards to a school in Alexandria, and ‘emergency’ cards to the families of students at the six schools receiving food bags and to a seventh school.

As was done previously, Assistance League also scheduled its provision of new clothing to coincide with the delivery of the food bags. The nonprofit provided 190 items of winter clothing, including winter jackets, hats, gloves, leggings, long-sleeve shirts, and sweatpants, based on input from the schools, if provided. Assistance League also ordered sneakers for some schools and encouraged the other schools to submit their requests, according to their needs and preferred delivery schedules.

Assistance League’s delivery of nourishing food and warm winter clothing helps ensure that students’ basic needs are met, so they can develop self-confidence. The smiles of students who recently received new coats from us say it all. The boy was very happy with his new jacket and especially liked the soft fleece lining in the hood.

The overall goal of its philanthropic programs is to help develop well-rounded students by addressing the needs of the whole child. With this combined event, Assistance League provided students in need with two essentials: nourishing food and warm clothing. It also let them know that people in the community care about them.