Red Bag Day

If you aren't already aware of this amazing local charity, let me introduce you to Food for Neighbors, which serves the Herndon and Reston areas of Northern Virginia. The best introduction is on their website: "Food for Neighbors is a non-profit organization helping to feed students who struggle with hunger after school, on weekends, and during school holidays."

Every other month throughout the school year Food for Neighbors sponsors a Red Bag Day. Maybe you've seen these bags on your neighbors' doorsteps on early Saturday mornings? The filled bags are swapped with an empty bag, labeled with suggested food donation items and future scheduled Red Bag Days. An army of volunteers picks up and sorts the donations at Herndon Middle School for distribution. The next Red Bag day is October 27, 2018.

Here is what happened at the Red Bag event on September 8, 2018. Contributions are now feeding more than 800 students weekly.

• 32 Drivers collected over 6,500 pounds of food in Red Bags from over 600 households.
• Over 80 volunteers on-site sorted the incoming food.
• More than 250 bins full of food were packed and distributed to 12 schools.

I have helped assemble similar snack-packs that are distributed to my kids' elementary school and have seen first-hand the care and detail that it put into and providing these snack packs for our schools' students in need. I have also heard first hand from one of my kids' school counselor about the measurable difference that providing weekend snack-packs to students in need has made in their ability to be prepared to mentally and physically when they return to school on Monday mornings. I am grateful to be connected in a small way to the enormous impact Food for Neighbors has made in the care of our students and their success.

Visit the Food for Neighbors website to learn more about this organization and to volunteer to help or to request a red bag for donating food.