A video about what goes into 96 backpacks every week for the backpack program.

We are giving out 96 backpacks a week now!  I am amazed.  When we started the program we used to look at the number 100 and think that was a lot to do every week.  We started with 5 then 15 then 35 at the beginning of this year.  Now we are at 96 and still growing!  

We told the counselors when we started, we will just see where it takes us and continue as long as we can get in the donations needed to keep the program going.  You continually amaze me with your support of this.  Not in a way that I didn't think you had the hearts for it but you take what I thought we could do and multiply it even more!  

We have filled Liz and Mike's basement every week with food for a year now.  We are getting bigger and have been looking for another space to work in and now another couple have offered space in their house to store more food so we can continue expanding.  Thank you Justin and April!  Here is Liz, our "Backpack Queen", explaining a little about what we put in the bags.

Feed more kids!  That's what that means!  We can feed more kids.  A good way to think about the amount of children we feed every weekend is to imagine four classrooms full of children.  That is what you provide.  You feed four classrooms of children every weekend.  Volunteers come every wednesday to Liz's house and carry in food from deliveries, sort it, date it and restock the shelves.  They then label and fill all the bags that need to go out on Thursday to the schools.  They load up all the backpacks and deliver them to our local schools by noon on Friday so the children can take them home.  Then we start the next week.

Right now we are in need of:
-pudding
-canned chicken
-soup
-simply fruit snacks
-crackers

Thank you for being a part of this!
Jill :)

Zumba

Zumba!

Thanks to Willie and Ty Diggs for hosting a Zumba food drive event at Dulles Sportsplex for L2F. We had a great time doing Zumba for 2 hours to raise food for the Backpack program. I had always wanted to try Zumba and Ty is a really fun teacher who made it fun and so easy to follow along! We hope to do another one in the future.

Willie also adopted one of our L2F families that needed Christmas presents. He donated, wrapped and delivered presents for a family with 6 children. Thank you so much for your generosity Willie and Ty!

Thanksgiving Baskets

We Delivered Thanksgiving Baskets to 58 Families!

We can't thank you enough for the food and time you all donated to our Thanksgiving Deliveries! Last year we gave baskets to 17 families and my goal was to double that but we delivered 58! People were giving their time to buy, assemble and deliver baskets the weekend before Thanksgiving and we were able to do so much more with all of you helping. We had middle school volunteers assembling them and getting them ready to take out which really helped.

We have lots of thanks to pass along to you from the families who received them. Our volunteers did a wonderful job connecting and showing love to families in need in our area.

Thank you again so much!

Jill

More backpacks!

Today I was driving around town getting my Halloween candy and doing errands when I got a call from a friend at school requesting more backpacks. 

All of a sudden I got such a big dose of perspective. There are kids that don't have food. No food! We get irritable if we miss a snack or meal and these kids go through the weekend waiting for Monday to come so they can eat. Wow. 

I do this every week so yes, I know about it, but it hit deeper in my brain and heart today. No food.  We received at least three more today to put the number at 43 and we think more are coming next week.

This Sunday we will be at the Giant grocery stores in Ashburn from 10:30-noon collecting food for the backpack program as a part of our Service Sunday at J10 church.  Last time we collected about $1500 worth of food in 2 hours and we can't thank you all and Giant stores enough!  Please come out and help children in need in Ashburn eat a meal.  These 40 kids went to the backpacks 280 times for food last weekend. 

Thank you for helping and being a part of L2F!
Jill

We delivered!

Melanie's couch finally gets a new home!

Hello everyone! We have been delivering all the household items and furniture that you all have been donating for the mother and son who lost their apartment in a fire.  The mother had just gotten settled when her water heater exploded so her friend and coworkers emailed out that they needed help!

You all have responded and I wanted to let you know that we delivered a couch, bed, dining table and chairs,television, 2 dressers, pots, pans, kitchen utensils, boys bicycle and other items are going to be delivered this week.  They have a new apartment and all the goods to fill it!

Thank you to all of you who put your time and effort in on watching all the emails that went back and forth with this delivery!  It took a lot to coordinate and I appreciate everyone's patience and hard work on this!  We have awesome volunteers!  Thanks to Carl, Shane, John, Stacy, Josh, Bill, Otho and Rob. We couldn't do this without such a great delivery team!

Welcome back to school and let's get busy helping people!

Melanie loading supplies for the backpack program.

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a great summer!  We have been busy at L2F preparing for the fall and back to school this past month and I just want to let you know a few things going on!

We did 2 fundraising events this past month! We collected about $2500 worth of food to start the backpack program next week in our local schools again.  Last year hungry children in Ashburn ate over 2400 times because they had food out of a weekend backpack from L2F.  We are going to try and get this program into more schools in Ashburn this year!  We want to feed as many kids as we can!

Avi helping with the backpack program.

We also did a fundraiser at Walgreens in Broadlands and collected about 25 backpacks and school supplies to fill them for children who do not have supplies.  Kolleen set this fundraiser up for us so many thanks to her and Walgreens!  Thanks also to the L2F members Chelsie, Lisa, Abe and Laura who came out to run the table that day!

Gee gee,Liz,Elisa,Misty,Jen and Melanie sorting food for L2F.

We are collecting furniture and household items for a family who recently lost their apartment in a fire.  We have collected a bed, couch, dining set, pots, pans, kitchen items, dressers, a bike and many other items to deliver to them to start their new apartment over.  This delivery is in process and many of you are donating and working on it!  Thank you so much for watching the emails and your patience on this delivery as we sort out the details of the delivery!

You are all making a difference in people's lives right here in our community and I thank you so much for that!  They thank you!  Welcome back and let's get busy! :)
Jill 

Aid To Joplin

Hi, my name is Taylor and I had the privilege of being part of a group of men who took a missions trip to Joplin, Missouri at the beginning of June. Arriving only a few short weeks after the tornado tore through the city of Joplin, devastation and destruction was still essentially all there was to see for about as far as one could see. I had seen pictures and videos of the area prior to leaving for the trip, but seeing it first-hand was an unbelievably sobering experience. The first-hand images of 2x4s thrown through homes, trees ripped from the ground, and entire neighborhoods turned to rubble will be burned in my memory for the rest of my life.

The team with a thankful Jopliner

The piece of my experience that hit me the hardest was the reality of how temporary the things of this world are and how they can be taken away from us in the blink of an eye. Words can’t even describe the emotions and the lasting impact that comes from walking through what once was the foundation of a person’s home to carry out furniture and being in complete shock as to the destructive powers of Mother Nature. It was incredible to see how the people of Joplin weren’t dwelling on the fact that their entire lives had been swept away and destroyed, but rather they were clinging to the people they loved and spoke simply of how blessed they felt to be alive. Every person we came across continuously thanked us for such simple tasks as moving a few piles of debris, that to us were simple tasks, but the help meant the world to these people. I was blown away by the love and sense of community that existed amongst the people of Joplin and all those who came incredible distances to assist with the relief efforts.

We heard numerous stories of incredible survival from people whose entire homes were destroyed except for the tiny bathroom or hall closet that was left standing amongst a pile of rubble. One elderly woman, whom we fixed a fence for, had a dog named Buddy Dee that was caught outside during the storm and had been traumatized by the storm. When we got done fixing this fence, I have never seen such a happy dog in all my life. Buddy Dee couldn’t stop running laps around the yard and I believe the dog’s excitement was only outdone by that of her owner who was ecstatic that her dog could once again run free. I could write for quite a bit if I recounted all the stories from my trip, but this is just one example of how I witnessed the citizens of Joplin appreciating the little things in life that I tend to take for granted. I also learned that little acts of kindness really do make a difference in people’s lives. With the vastness of the destruction our group felt and knew that we were barely putting a dent in helping Joplin on their road to recovery, but that didn’t mean that the work we did was meaningless. It was important to those we were helping and impacted both their lives and our own.

Buddy Dee!

In closing, I would like to extend the all the thanks that the people of Joplin gave to us, to all those who donated to L2F for the city of Joplin. On our final day in the city, we drove around and distributed the money, donated by you all, to the people in need that the Lord led us to. So don’t think simply because you couldn’t make the trip to Joplin that you didn’t and haven’t had an impact on the people of Joplin and contributed to the relief efforts because you have!  I hope that my short story of my experience in Joplin has been meaningful and that you can take something from it that will help you grow closer to Christ and inspire you to continue living each and every day for God and advancing His kingdom. God Bless!

All photos kindly provided by Herb.