Inside the largest middle school in Prince William County, a powerful idea has come to life.
Tucked into a closet barely big enough for you and a friend is enough food to support dozens of families.
“The demand is there, and it’s increased throughout the year, and I anticipate that it’s gonna continue to,” said Jim Dutrow, the principal of Lake Ridge Middle School.
This year, Lake Ridge Middle School is one of 10 Prince William County schools piloting small but mighty food pantries supported by the Capital Area Food Bank and the Prince William County Community Foundation.
“Here in our county, we have 14,000 to 16,000 kids who go hungry over the weekends, and so this program expanded our reach to be able to reach more students, more families in order to provide food assistance to those families and those students,” said Vanessa Gattis, CEO of the Prince William County Community Foundation.
A year in the making, families who need support can contact their school parent liaison, fill out an online form and a member of the school team will pack a bag of food that families can pick up.
“We do have one family in one of our schools that utilize the food pantry,” said Dawn Davis with Prince William County Public Schools. Both parents had recently lost their jobs and so they were able to come to the food pantry to get enough food for themselves.”
The food is provided through grants and donations, and the program is serving families at no cost to the school division.
“This model here in Prince William County, we want it to be a model all across the DMV, as well as the state of Virginia because we believe that food insecurity isn’t going anywhere,” Gattis said.
The Prince William County Community Foundation says the ultimate goal is to put a food pantry in every school in the county.
Educators say students struggle to learn if they’re hungry, and Prince William wants to make a point to take care of their families so they can best serve their students.
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