Food For Neighbors Continues Services through the Summer

Food For Neighbors is excited to share that it will continue providing weekend food to Herndon Middle School and Herndon High School students who face food insecurity. This is the first summer that the four-year-old nonprofit has extended its services, which is made possible by dedicated volunteers, generous donations, and community partnerships. Every Thursday this summer, Herndon Pyramid teens may pick up their weekend food from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm in front of Herndon Middle School.

“With the ongoing pandemic, students are facing even more food insecurity, and I strongly feel the need to continue helping them through the summer,” shared Karen Joseph, Founder of Food For Neighbors. “I’m so grateful for the wonderful community support that makes this possible.”

Karen and Mark Joseph launched Food For Neighbors to address teen hunger at schools where many students had few reliable food sources other than their weekday school breakfasts and lunches. While various programs had recently begun to address this concern at the elementary school level, they were too limited to address the large middle and high school populations. In 2016, Food For Neighbors began filling this gap via its “Red Bag” program, which allows individuals to shop for nonperishable items at their convenience and to set them on their doorsteps for collection approximately five times per year. Volunteers organized by neighborhoods then collect the food and bring it to a central location, where it is sorted and then delivered to 21 participating schools. At the schools, volunteers package the food, and social workers and parent liaisons distribute the packages to students on a weekly basis.

When schools closed due to the pandemic, Food For Neighbors quickly changed its regular operations. Now, weekend food is made possible via innovative virtual “Red Bag” collections, other donations, and community partnerships. Herndon partners include Great Harvest Bread Company, Sprouts Farmers Market, Harris Teeter, and Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Food For Neighbors thanks community members for their support. To learn more, please visit https://www.foodforneighbors.org/.