Family turns small food drive into major campaign that's feeding thousands in the D.M.V.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (ABC7) — A couple of times a week, eight-year-old Foster Marchand, his siblings and parents turn their front yard in Alexandria into a hub of hope for food-insecure families throughout the region. Families drop off sandwiches and canned goods to feed those in need in a wildly successful, grassroots project called Be the Good.
Back in June, the Marchand’s started small, asking friends to drop off whatever they could into a small box near their mailbox.
“And we were overwhelmed by the response," says Amber Marchand.
Since then, they’ve donated 4500 pounds of food to the pantry at nearby United Community.
“In a time when there’s so much uncertainty and we don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, to know that there are these families that care and care enough to pass that on to their kids," says Deb Halla with United Community.
Then came the sandwiches.
Marchand adds, “And we reached out to Martha’s Table at one point and asked what they needed because we just really felt like there was a call to the city as well and they said, actually we need sandwiches.”
The Marchands recruited everyone they could think of in their community and social media sphere to help. In only weeks, they’ve delivered more than 6,000 sandwiches to Martha’s Table.
Foster tells us while packing a basement fridge with sandwiches, “Yeah, a lot of people are hungry. They really rely on us. I’m really proud of being part of the team.”
That team includes teachers, students and parents associated with nearby Aldersgate Day School. On this day, they made dozens of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Danielle Cotter made sandwiches with her young daughters.
“It’s also really important that we are showing our girls what it means to give back and to help those who need it,” says Cotter.
Marchand concludes, “That heart for the community is really something we hope to teach, but frankly it's putting into action that we couldn’t have imagined.”
The Marchand’s don’t plan on stopping any time soon after seeing living proof that there's great power in doing one small, kind thing for something else. In fact, their next big project is participating in the Stuff the Bus program: a major food drive campaign in our region. For more information on where you can drop off food on September 12th and 26th click here.
