Food Council to Focus on Feeding Prince William’s Impoverished

MANASSAS, Va. — Not knowing where one’s next meal will come from, or when it will come, is a widespread problem.

So, some area leaders in their respective fields decided to do something about it on the local level. On Thursday, the Greater Prince William Food Council will launch. The group, an idea born out of Leadership Prince William;s Class of 2014, will focus its efforts on making food more readily available to children and seniors in our community.

We all recognized in order to have any kind of an impact in whatever direction we wanted to take, we needed to have those involved with emergency food assistance, school meals, and anyone who helps connect at risk people for hunger with food be apart of our group,” said Greater Prince William Food Council Chairwoman Pam Ryan.

Though Prince William County regularly ranks as one of the nation’s top wealthiest counties, people here are going hungry.

“It’s one of those invisible problems,” said Ryan. “We go from to home to work to the store and see everyone who looks like us, so hunger is not that easy to spot…hunger plays a role in the lives of so many people, even though we’re such an affluent county.”

The group is working to engage churches and community groups that operate food pantries in the county. Ryan say’s they’re an integral resource in helping put food in the mouths area hungry.

The group is also working to increase child participation in free meal programs at schools, and to provide more food to homeless, veterans, and to members of Prince William’s aging senior population.

In 2012, 45.6 million people in the U.S. lived below the poverty line. A total of 22% of them were children.

The group will hold its kick off event at the Center for the Arts at the Candy Factory, at 9419 Battle Street in Manassas, at 9 a.m. Thursday. Former Occoquan Mayor Earine Porta will host the event, and Manassas Mayor Hal Parrish, and Prince William County School Board Chairman At-large Milton Johns will speak.

The Greater Prince William Food Council holds its regular meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 p.m. at the Chinn Library.

The council’s Board of Directors includes the following members: 

Deniece (Dee) R. Brown
Director of Social Services
City of Manassas Park

Celeste Corrigan
Liaison
Haymarket Regional Food Pantry

Matthew Dela Cuesta
Virginia Regional Coordinator – SNAP
Capital Area Food Bank

Mary Finnigan
Chief Operating Officer
Benedictine Sisters of Virginia

Ron King
Director of Family Services
City of Manassas

Kelly Lindquist, Vice Chair
Director, Client Support Services
Action in Community Through Service (ACTS)

Sherri Longhill
Director for Emergency Assistance
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington

Rebekah McGee
Deputy Director
Action in Community Through Service (ACTS)

Brad Marshall
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney
Prince William County

LaTonya Reed
Staff Attorney
Virginia Hunger Solutions – An Initiative of the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)

Dede Rutherford
HR Manager II
USFoods

Pam Ryan, Chair
Director of Development
Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS)/SERVE

Susan Sanzone
Food Services Manager, SERVE
Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS)/SERVE

Lisa Tatum, Government Liaison
Division Chief – Benefit, Employment & Child Care Programs
Prince William County

Cecelia Vergaretti
Sr. Director, NOVA Region
Head of Partner Engagement
Capital Area Food Bank

Addie Whitaker
Director of Social Services, Retired
City of Manassas Park

Eric Williams
Board Member
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Prince William County

Advisors

Kathy Bentz
Bentz Communications

Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
Washington, D.C.

Brian Jacks
AARP Associate State Director

Patrick King and Rebecca Vaughan-King
Imagine Design

Caroline Shaaber
Vision Finders