Reliable Nutrition Is Key to Student Success

Food For Neighbors raises awareness, engages communities, and partners with Northern Virginia secondary schools to connect vital food resources with students. Join our over 3,100 food and toiletry donors and more than 3,600 volunteers in lifting up local students in our 47 partnering schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties.

CLICK HERE to sign up to donate food and toiletries five times a year through our Red Bag Program.

Show your community spirit! Wear your red Food For Neighbors shirt or other red shirt to let others in the community know you’re aware and you care.

The Need

All children deserve to have reliable, nutritious food powering their minds and bodies so they may enjoy active, healthy lives. Unfortunately, 1 in 7 children in Virginia face hunger.(1) Poverty, combined with the high cost of living, make it difficult for families to afford housing, food, medicine, and other basic necessities.(2) During the 2023-2024 school year in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties, over 93,000 students resided in households with incomes qualifying them for free or reduced-price school meals. Over 1 in 4 students qualified in Arlington and Loudoun counties, and over 1 in 3 qualified in Fairfax County.(3) These are the children who may be experiencing–or who are at risk of experiencing–food insecurity. This can negatively impact their physical and mental health, well-being, and work and school performance.(4)

Our Solution

We help schools establish pantries and fill them regularly with food and toiletries, almost all of which local community members donate, collect, sort, and deliver to schools. At the schools, staff identify teens in need, develop relationships with them, and connect them with the reliable, easily-accessible resources, which may also include grocery gift cards that we provide for the most vulnerable. Students are better able to focus and learn. In the long term, being better students lifts up them, their families, and our community as a whole.



Notes
(1) “Get the Facts about Hunger in Virginia,” Feeding America, accessed August 5, 2024, https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/virginia.
(2) “Arlington County Food Security Strategic Plan,” Arlington County Department of Human Services, October 2022, page 10, https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/DHS/Food-Security-Coalition.
(3)“VDOE National School Lunch Program Free and Reduced Price Eligibility Reports,” Virginia Department of Education, accessed January 31, 2024, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/programs-services/school-operations-support-services/school-nutrition/program-statistics-reports.
(4) “Hunger and Food Insecurity,” Feeding America, accessed August 5, 2024, https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity.