Food insecurity is a serious issue in Northern Virginia, according to the St. Lucy Project, a diocesan Catholic Charities initiative, which aims to combat the problem any way it can. Sometimes that means giving local public school kids secret bags filled with food on Fridays so they don’t go hungry over the weekend.
Whether the initiative is known as ForK (For Kids) or Backpack Buddies, the program is the same. Volunteers come to St. Lucy Project food warehouses and pack gallon-sized Ziploc bags with food kids can cook themselves. Then liaisons with the schools come by and pick them up.
The food is then discreetly distributed to students as they leave school on Friday, so as not to single anyone out for needing the helping hand over the weekend.
Keli Fisher, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Manassas, and the Girl Scout Troop she leads have spent the last few years putting together 170 bags every two weeks for local students in Prince William County.
“St. Lucy Project provides the food, and I talk with the counselors at the school, and we figure out the need,” said Fisher. Right now the troop helps feed students at five schools. It’s all word of mouth, and sometimes, Fisher said, they have had to turn schools away for lack of food supplies.
The bags typically consist of an instant macaroni and cheese meal, apple sauce, a snack, some Horizon milk, which has a longer shelf life than regular milk, fruit and oatmeal. They are put together in assembly-line fashion, loaded in boxes, taped up and brought out front for pickup later in the week.
Gaëtane Milet, 17, said it’s a good way to spend her free time, and she is grateful for the chance to help people who are so appreciative.
“We were read an email once from one of the counselors at the schools, and it was so heartwarming. It just feels good to make a difference and it’s one you can see,” she said during a recent troop gathering at the Manassas St. Lucy Project warehouse.
Mia Arevalo-Delcid, 16, has known the girls in her troop for years. Now that they all go to different high schools, she said it’s amazing to see the difference just one school could make in terms of what the families need. Some schools are far more affluent, while others have families facing serious challenges, she said.
Helping with the bag preparation comes naturally because it’s what her family has taught her from a young age — to be grateful.
“Family is the most important thing and we know we need to give something back to help others. My mother has taught me that there is always more that we can do to help out,” she said, while barely stopping from the task at hand.
Sara Becker works as a counselor with Prince William County Public Schools. She said the bags Fisher and her girls collect are a godsend. There are 50 kids on her list that ForK helps feed — 10 new ones just this month.
“I had a third-grade boy see the bag and ask, ‘Do I get this every week?’ When I said yes, it looked like a huge weight was falling off his shoulders, it was such a relief,” she said.
Becker goes to each class on Friday and finds her students. She discreetly hands off a bag that can fit in a backpack and escape the notice of the other students.
All the parents are so grateful, although some are embarrassed, Becker said.
“You shouldn’t have to be grateful for food,” she said.
The last few years have been hard, said Lori Sikra, an outreach specialist with the St. Lucy Project in Manassas. COVID-19 made things more challenging because it was difficult to help individual children, she said. Some liaisons delivered the food to the children’s homes.
And while there are times when there is a surge in donations — Christmas in particular — at other times, donations lag. Recently, the shelves of the Manassas warehouse lacked food such as pasta and corn.
Beth Renzette, the school librarian at St. Theresa School in Ashburn, has been collecting donations for Backpack Buddies for several years. St. Theresa sponsors six schools in Loudoun County. The program recently began working with the St. Lucy Project based in Sterling.
Renzette shops the circulars and tries to stock up on “buy one, get one” offers. Each bag typically contains about $12 of food.
“We try to not give them junk. My mantra is ‘Would I eat this too?’ So, we give them staples that can be made into a meal,” she said.
“It is so community based,” Renzette said. “It could be our next door neighbors that need help.”
Shaffrey is a freelancer in Alexandria.
