Community Corner

Love Your Neighbor Food Drive Collects Record Amount of Food

Congregations from across Loudoun County joined together for annual "Love Your Neighbor, Feed Your Neighbor" food drive.

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For the third year in a row, multi faith congregations from across Loudoun County joined together to implement the successful and annual “Love Your Neighbor, Feed Your Neighbor” (LYNFYN) food drive. 

This year congregations from 23 churches worked throughout Loudoun participating in mini-food collections, door-to-door campaigns, manning donation tables at local Giant stores and other activities which climaxed on May 3rd, the County food collection day. All these activities and the generosity of Loudoun residents, the food drive collected a record 88,005 lbs of food plus $848.00 in monetary donations (equivalent to an additional 3,028 lbs of food).

This food will be distributed amongst 6 existing pantries and 1 start-up pantry, all located in Loudoun county.

Amongst the participating churches, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been one of the primary organizers of this event for the past three years. Guy Hicks, Stake President for the LDS Church shares, "The Love Your Neighbor/Feed Your Neighbor food drive is a wonderful example of the positive impact faith-based organizations and churches have in their communities". 

Initially organized in 2012 in response to Loudoun County food pantries’ needs to stock shelves during the summer months. These pantries discovered long ago that when children are out of school and donations run low, it is difficult to address the needs of the food insecure. 

Martha Michael, Executive Director of Catholic Charities shared, "The timing, coordination, and happy volunteers involved with the LYNFYN county-wide food drive could not be better. The Catholic Charities food pantry extends appreciation to all the volunteers involved. In addition, a special thanks to the Loudoun County Community: when we ask, you do give. During this special food collection, your generosity was evident." 

Brian McMullen, Director of The Tree of Life pantry in Purcellville echoes this sentiment expressing his gratitude and observation, "This was an awesome drive and our shelves are looking great!"

Also supportive each year of the Love Your Neighbor food drive is the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Once again this year, the Board of Supervisors voted on April 3 issuing a Resolution proclaiming May 2014 as Hunger Awareness Month to bring attention to our county’s hunger issues. 

Additionally, the Town of Leesburg joined in on April 8 with a resolution supporting the LYNFYN food drive as well.

In 2012, 6 churches participated in this event. In 2014, the LYNFYN county-wide food drive has seen an increase in faith based partners to a total of 23. Pres. Hicks commented, "We are pleased to support this effort and to work with our friends of all faiths in striving to live the divine mandate to love our neighbors."

Both Eastern and Western Loudoun were represented, several of which were new to LYNFYN this year. Congregations included All Dulles Areas Muslim Society, Ashburn Presbyterian, Baha’i’s of Loudoun County, Bethany UMC, Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Church of Our Redeemer, Community Church Virginia Academy, Community Lutheran Church, Galilee UMC, Goose Creek Friend Meeting, Headway Church, Immanuel Mar Thoma Church, King of Kings Worship Center, Leesburg Presbyterian, Middleburg Baptist Church, Middleburg UMC, Raj Khalsa Gurdwara, Restore Community Church, St. David’s Episcopal, St. James’ Episcopal, St. Matthew’s Episcopal and Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church. 

Thanks to the generosity of the citizens of Loudoun County and the dedication of the participating congregations, LYNFYN 2014 results are an impressive 27% increase over 2013, which also saw a similar increase over 2012. Local food pantries/programs designated as recipients were as follows: Catholic Charities, LINK, Loudoun Interfaith Relief, Messiah’s Market, Seven Loaves, and Tree of Life.


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