Fighting Hunger in Centreville's Elementary Schools

Last year Margaret Welker, a first grade teacher at , began to notice a concerning trend in her classroom: many of her students consistently came to school without a snack. “That bothers me because I know that if they don’t have a snack, there are lots of other things they don’t have,” she said. 

Welker noted that the students who were unable to bring snacks to school weren’t as focused in class as their peers, likely due to improper nutrition and an unhealthy amount of stress for children their age; instead of concentrating on academics, these students were more concerned with where their next meal would come from.  

Approximately 24 percent of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students qualify for free and reduced-price meals. The discounted meal program, designed to ease financial burdens on low-income families in the area, ensures that needy students receive breakfast and lunch at school each weekday. But for some of these students, the meals provided for them at school are the only ones they’ll eat all week.   

Welker was determined to do something about this issue, even if only for the students in her class. She appealed to the women in her fellowship circle at to see if they could work out a way to provide snacks for her classroom. Welker’s mission coordinator believed they could do better--by feeding these children over the weekends.  

In January 2010, CUMC began encouraging its parishioners to donate at least one food bag each month containing items from a suggested list of nonperishable goods. Each bag is enough to feed one child for an entire weekend. The response from the CUMC community, Welker says, was overwhelming.  

Churchgoers didn’t hesitate to pitch in and initially donated enough food to feed about 30 Bull Run students each weekend. Though it was CUMC that helped Margaret Welker jumpstart her mission to assist hungry students, she also wanted Bull Run to be actively involved in the project. Last winter she chartered the yoU Feed Others (UFO) program, an ongoing partnership between Bull Run Elementary and Centreville United Methodist Church.  

“It’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done,” Welker said, “and people are so excited to help.” Bull Run and CUMC currently provide for over 65 students every weekend. CUMC now also prepares 60 food bags each week for students. h also runs a similar Backpack Program for 64 students at . 

Though Centreville lies within Fairfax County, one of the most highly educated and wealthy regions in the country, the community and its surrounding areas are home to many people suffering from homelessness and hunger. Among Centreville elementary schools, has the highest percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price meals, 44 percent, followed by , 31 percent, and , 26 percent. Union Mill and Elementary Schools have the least number of students enrolled in the program at 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively. 

At Bull Run, counselors work with families whose children receive free and reduced-price meals to determine those in the most need. Then, with the help of parent volunteers, the counselors distribute the food bags on Friday afternoons. They receive so many donations from the community that they are also able to provide for these families during holidays, school breaks, and throughout summer vacation. 

“What’s so nice about the [UFO] program is that it puts that level of awareness out there that there are kids in Centreville...who are having their basic needs unmet,” said Bull Run counselor Dana Doss.  

In an effort to further educate others in the commonwealth about hunger, Doss and Laura Quinn, another Bull Run counselor, gave a presentation about the UFO program in late March at the Virginia School Counselor Association Annual Conference in Richmond. They hope that other schools in Northern Virginia with students in need will look to Bull Run’s program for inspiration and start their own programs as necessary.  

“This program is vital to the thriving of our school at this point,” Doss said, “Our main objective is to educate these kids and when their basic needs aren’t met learning doesn’t happen; it can’t.” 

Margaret Welker, who has high hopes for continuing and expanding the program next year, said she has seen a significant difference in the academic performance of the children benefitting from the UFO program. “[Now] their minds are free to think about something else,” she said.  

But for Welker, the best thing about helping students through the UFO program is “the grins on their faces when they walk out the door because they know the weekend’s gonna be ok.”