On Saturday, Jan. 17, McLean McPantry, McLean’s Food for Neighbors (FFN) chapter, attended a food collection at Luther Jackson Middle School, aiming to make weekend meal packs for students in need. FFN, a non-profit organization working to eliminate food shortages for students, collects and sorts food to distribute to families who need it.
“We had a really big collection day where we had a lot of food,” said senior Raha Golshani, a Co-Founder of McLean McPantry. “It can get chaotic at times, but because of the amount of volunteers we have the job always gets done pretty fast and everything is kept very organized.”
McLean McPantry was created by a group of students dedicated to making positive change in their community, and providing extra help to classmates in need.
“I had heard about food for neighbors when Ms Senegar, Dr Reiley, and Ms Van Vranken came into my leadership one day last year to inform us about the issue of food insecurity amongst students at Mclean and other surrounding schools,” said senior Maeve Lewis, a Co-Founder of McLean McPantry. “From there, a couple of friends and I followed up with them to hold an interest meeting and start up a pantry at our own school.”
With FFN, McLean McPantry attends monthly food collections at Luther Jackson Middle School, and helps sort all of the “red bag donations,” which are donations of food given by community members across the Falls Church area. These donations are then distributed to middle and high schools that have FFN organizations, including McLean. McLean McPantry also sometimes hosts food collections at McLean.
“Once the donations arrive at Mclean, we put them into our McPantry and make weekend meals packs for students in need,” Lewis said. “Also at McLean, we partner with Wegman’s Grocery to hold food rescues where they graciously donate tons of produce, meals, and treats.”
The McLean McPantry and Food for Neighbors are beneficial organizations to the community, and their volunteers are proud to know they are making a difference. Through attending and hosting food collections, they are able to provide extra support to classmates in need.
“Our help to the community was definitely shown in our last food rescue which occurred when the government was shut down. We had so many people come to the drive thru to collect donations to support their families,” Lewis said. “It felt so good to be able to help out our hard working community. I am so excited to see the McPantry continue to blossom in the years to come.”
