Helping Hands for You Feed Others

Employees at Long & Foster’s Chantilly headquarters volunteered for the company-wide Community Service Day by collecting and packing food items for children in need for the You Feed Others program. This is the third year the company has supported the program, which aims to feed school-aged children in Fairfax County—those who typically qualify for free and reduced-price meals—when school is not in session. 

UFO is a program founded by a Centreville-area teacher who noticed many school-aged children were struggling to stay focused when they were hungry. These students were coming to school without having eaten on a regular basis and she noticed they were often more focused on where their next meal would come from than academics. With the help of Centreville United Methodist Church, the UFO program began distributing backpack kits to qualifying children that contain food to feed them throughout the weekend or a period when school is not in session.

About 26 percent of students at Fairfax County Public Schools qualify for free and reduced-price meals. They are ensured breakfast and lunch at school each weekday but these may be the only hot, nutritious meals some students’ families can afford. 

Long & Foster employees gathered together in the building to create a large assembly line where they placed two breakfast, lunch and dinner items, two snack items and a juice box into bags for the weekend food kits. More than 700 kits were created that will help feed children at Pine Spring Elementary School. Pine Spring Principal Armando Peri addressed the volunteers, thanking them for their contributions and work. He said the kits make a big difference in the lives of the children who receive them.

Submitted by Long & Foster