"The Cafe is offered to the whole community as well as children in the transitional housing program," she said. "We work with the kids on academics, but we also provide workshops for the parents."
The academic help has proved to be helpful, she said, as students who entered the program in September were tested in January on math – more... and reading. Their test scores showed an 81 percent increase in comprehension, Baxley said.
GIVING THE CHILDREN a healthy snack after school helps provide nutrition that might be supplemented by the free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs at schools before the children return home for dinner, she said.
"The Food Bank brings us food every week which allows us to provide the snack," Baxley said. "The staff is able to pick from a menu, so we can provide something the kids will like, but it's also healthy."
Moving to the other side of the county, McDonnell's tour included a stop at Food For Others, a Fairfax City-based food pantry.
"A rather large group of people came in to see what we do," said Roxanne Rice, executive director for Food For Others. "They saw our USDA Commodities room and the emergency boxes we provide to families in need."
For the past 11 years, Food For Others has provided assistance to families in Northern Virginia who find themselves making the choice between buying groceries and paying rent.
"We saw a huge increase in clients after 9/11," Rice said, echoing what Carroll stated at the Food Bank. "Given the high cost of living in this area, there's a number of people who are working but have trouble making ends meet."
Despite its reputation for being an affluent region, Northern Virginia does have the same problems with poverty, homelessness and people going hungry as can be found across the country, Rice said. The need for help isn't just felt at the holidays, but throughout the year, and the supplies at Food For Others are becoming sparse.
"I really hope [McDonnell] goes back to Richmond with a better awareness for social services in Northern Virginia," Rice said. "We are well-known as an economically-fortunate area, but that works against people of low income who rely on us."
MCDONNELL ALSO stopped at New Hope Housing, a transitional housing shelter in Alexandria that provides food for families in need.
The attorney general and his entourage were given a "Homelessness 101 presentation," said New Hope Executive Director Pam Michell.
"The real issue in homelessness is housing and with rent so high here, people are living on the margin," she said. "We see so many people come in with health issues that can be improved just by changing their diet. That's why the Food Bank is so helpful."
Michell said McDonnell was impressed with the variety of services New Hope provides in addition to being a shelter.
"We have a whole range of programs, including case management, an after-school center, an employment center," Michell said. "He said we're more of a whole service program than any shelter he'd seen before."
By opening their doors to McDonnell, Michell said she's hoping he'll return to Richmond with a new idea of homelessness, who it affects and how it can be abated.
"People have this image of shelters as being a discouraging place," she said. "They don't see them as the beginning of a new life, and I think that's what he saw when he was here. There is a way to get out."
A native of the Mount Vernon area, McDonnell said he was surprised to find pockets of poverty in Northern Virginia.
"I wouldn't have thought, as strong as the economy is in Fairfax County and as low as the unemployment rate is, that there would be an increased need and demand for homeless shelter lodging and food," McDonnell said.
To help stock the shelves of food pantries across Virginia, he is sponsoring a food drive called the Legal Food Frenzy. For two weeks in April, McDonnell's office is challenging legal firms to raise half a million pounds of food to donate to regional food banks. The firm that collects the most food or contributes the most money will receive the Attorney General's Cup.
During his visit, McDonnell said he was impressed with the support the organizations receive from their communities. "They give their lives to make sure other people's quality of life is improved," he said. "We've got to do things to encourage the private sector to continue their good work."
McDonnell said he hopes to make the food drive and tour annual events.
"It's a matter of focus and attention, making sure all state-wide leaders bring attention to the plight of those less fortunate," he said. "I don't think we need to start new programs, we just have to find ways to promote the organizations already doing an outstanding job." – less – More from ZoomInfo »
