The Torch

Generosity Can Fight Child Hunger in Sterling

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 By Lexi Cozzens

Dominion’s main gym had been transformed from being a giant, mostly empty room, to a bustling work area packed with people, boxes, and bags of food. Large tables separated into even rows and columns filled the empty space, and the whole place smelled like a combination of uncooked rice, and muffins, which had been served to the volunteers in the morning before the packaging began. It was approximately 9:40 in the morning on Sunday October 16 th , and about three hundred showed up at Dominion to package food for the needy. Generosity Feeds, the organization that orchestrated the event, kicked-off the food-packaging by playing the video students had seen on the morning announcements for weeks now. Generosity Feeds is a nonprofit organization dedicated to feeding children in Sterling who do not receive enough food outside of their school-provided lunches. Congressman Frank Wolf endorsed the program, stating, “This is a great program. Sadly, there is a growing need in our community to provide food for families who are struggling to make ends meet. I applaud what the students are doing and encourage other schools to start similar programs. It is also important to remember that collecting food needs to be down year round, not just at Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.” Ron Klabunde, the organizer of the event and president of Generosity Feeds, spoke a lot about childhood hunger, claiming that poverty in Loudoun County was “covered up for the sake of image.” “Today’s students have a great opportunity to eradicate child hunger in America by living beyond themselves for the good of others. They have the potential to move beyond the greed of previous generations and into a life-style of generosity that changes the economy and morality of the world,” Klabunde said. Several dozen tables were set up, with around six to ten people working at each one. Volunteers would take a plastic bag and fill it with dried rice, dehydrated vegetables, and vitamin supplements. They would then weigh the bag, making sure it weighed around four-hundred grams, seal the bag, tape a message on it, and then pack the bag in a cardboard box. But the real focus of the event was not the packaging itself, but rather, the cause it benefited, the impoverished children in Sterling. According to Klabunde, exactly 659 students in Loudoun County Public Schools were classified as “homeless” last year, and an even greater number of students relied on school produced food as their only source of nourishment. Generosity Feeds was sponsored by several community organizations. Corner Bakery supplied free breakfast for the volunteers, Jersey Mike’s offered discount for all those who attended, and Mom’s Against Poverty had numerous members come in to help out. Kids Against hunger actually bought the food and the packaging materials. Additionally, Restore Community Church, a religious organization that Klabunde is affiliated with, did a lot of the financing. Dominion Students were not the only ones to volunteer. Students from other high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and even adults who simply wanted to help out showed up for work on Sunday morning. One such student, seventh grader Jessica Blondin, who attends Seneca Ridge, said: “People know about [the lifestyle of the impoverished], they just don’t think about it.” “I’m a complete mess, but it was so worth it,” said sophomore Odyssey Armitage, pointing at her once-blue shirt now caked in white powder. “I’m a little shocked. I went to Sugarland. It’s weird to think that my friends, the kids I went to school with, could have lived like this.” As sophomore Tiffany Akery cleaned up her station following the event, she remarked, “More help is more change.”