Home Food Lion donates $2,300 to W&L’s Campus Kitchen for backpack program in Rockbridge
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Food Lion donates $2,300 to W&L’s Campus Kitchen for backpack program in Rockbridge

Rebecca Barnabi
washington and lee university
(© Andriy Blokhin – stock.adobe.com)

The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University (CKWL) received $2,300 from the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation.

The grant, designed to help feed neighbors in need, will support the ongoing efforts of the Campus Kitchen Backpack Program to assist families in Rockbridge County.

“With more and more families seeking out food relief organizations in our area and nationwide, it feels more important than ever to continue programs like the Backpack Program to help supplement the food budgets of our local families with school-aged children,” CKWL Coordinator Ryan Brink said. “We are delighted to see the continued support of the Food Lion Feeds Foundation for the Campus Kitchen Backpack Program as we work to meet those needs in our community.”

The Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation is committed to supporting families facing food insecurity and its Feeding the Hungry grant helps provide increased access to nutritious food and nutrition education in the communities it serves. The foundation has provided more than $18.9 million in grant funding.

The Campus Kitchen Backpack Program was established in 2009 to address the meal gap experienced by children receiving free and reduced lunch in schools throughout Rockbridge County and provides weekly packages of non-perishable breakfast, lunch and snack items to registered children at area schools. The funding from the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation will go toward the purchase of food for the program, which delivers 650 backpacks each week to preschoolers, elementary school students and middle school students in the local school districts.

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca J. Barnabi is the national editor of Augusta Free Press. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington, she began her journalism career at The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. In 2013, she was awarded first place for feature writing in the Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia Awards Program, and was honored by the Virginia School Boards Association’s 2019 Media Honor Roll Program for her coverage of Waynesboro Schools. Her background in newspapers includes writing about features, local government, education and the arts.