STERLING, Va. — Even though Loudoun County Public Schools are closed until next month, dozens and dozens of volunteers filed into Park View High School early Monday morning to make sure people weren’t going without meals.
For many students, school provides one to two meals a day – meals they might not be getting elsewhere. In Loudoun County, the district wanted to make sure that, even with schools closed due to the coronavirus, students and community members in need wouldn’t be going hungry.
"I am totally inspired by the response,” said Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Eric Williams. “Literally hundreds of school nutrition workers have come together, and reporting in as early as 4 AM this morning in order to prepare meals. One of the supervisors for transportation said they had twice as many bus drivers volunteer than what was needed."
Volunteers and LCPS staff members loaded up three school buses full of food at Park View High School Monday morning to send out to different points in the community to feed families. At the school building itself, hundreds of students showed up to grab a bagged lunch.
"There's food at home, but I'm not really good at cooking and I just wanted food that I could actually eat and enjoy, and I'm grateful for these people," senior Jose Ramirez said.
“We bind together in times of need and we figure out how we’re going to help our kids and our families,” said Park View High School Principal Kirk Dolson.
Dolson said he hoped the effort could be sustained for eight weeks or longer as needed, depending on the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.
“My hope is yes, through donors, people in the community,” Dolson said. “I had people show up this morning… I didn’t think they were going to show up from our community, and they just came and said, ‘We want to help.’”
For Ramirez and so many other students, life is on pause, and so are life goals just months away.
"It’s just surprising, because all the work that I’ve done just to get to this point and I hope that it doesn’t go to waste, because I was really hoping to graduate with an advanced diploma and get into a good college,” Ramirez said. “Walking up that stage with all my friends… it was my dream, you know?"
