McLean Boy Highlights Meal Distributions As Time Kid Reporter

MCLEAN, VA — Journalism comes easy to McLean 9-year-old Ethan Zhang. The Churchill Road Elementary fourth-grader was tasked with interviewing and profiling a local hero, choosing Maria Perrone, FCPS director of food and nutrition services. That story highlighted how Virginia's largest school system distributed meals to kids in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That story led to Zhang being named one of 10 Time for Kids Kid Reporters for the 2021-2022 school year. He was one of 20 finalists when he completed the profile of Perrone for the contest's final round.

Time has selected kids to be Kid Reporters and cover local and national news since 2000. Kids Reporters' articles will be published during this school year.

According to a FCPS blog story, Zhang became interested in journalism last year and started a website during the pandemic that only his family and friends could view.

"I wrote about the real world: politics, covid, sports sometimes," Zhang told the FCPS blog. "For example when Covid started I wrote about the number of cases there were, what Covid was and the first online college football draft."

The aspiring student journalist chose Perrone to profile due to the impact the FCPS food distribution had during the pandemic.

"Throughout the covid pandemic, she has helped a lot of families in need by providing more than 10 million meals to kids in our county," said Zhang. "So I thought her work and her leadership was very newsworthy and deserved to be written by someone."

Zhang asked questions about the toughest part of coordinating food distribution, and Perrone explained how FCPS has provided millions of free breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners since March 2020.

Speaking from Zoom with a background of Earth from space, Zhang also got to some fun questions like what were Perrone's favorites on the school cafeteria menu. She touted healthy options like salad, banana bread and milk, but the young journalist also got her to admit she loves the cheese nachos too.

Other Kid Reporters from Northern Virginia include David Murtagh, 11, of Alexandria, who attends McLean's Potomac School, and Bellen Woodard, 11, of Leesburg.

Read Zhang's full profile on Perrone from Time for Kids.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2021, about 42 million Americans may not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. 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.