CHARLOTTESVILLE (WINA) – With the 12th annual School Food Drive underway through the 24th, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank says there are a record number of participating organizations this year. Albemarle High School junior Emily Warren is one of the students– along with Albemarle freshman Lily Stendig — coordinating the effort which now has 31 schools and the YMCA participating.

Emily and Lily say they know food insecure students in their school. Lily said it a pretty widespread issue, which she wasn’t aware about at first. It kind of came of note to her in recent years, especially exacerbated by the pandemic.

“It’s a really great feeling to know you know people who are benefitting from this, and it just feels like a very important thing you can see have an impact”, Stendig said.

She and Warren say this is not just an adult problem for adults to solve because they have peers experiencing hunger, and they need to play a part in helping theirs and other families. Warren is president of a club at Albemarle called Students Working Against Hunger which was started by her predecessor as schools food drive coordinator Kat Ravichandran. Ravichandran graduated last year, and had reached out to Emily to help last year in preparation for Emily to coordinate this year. Emily has done the same thing in reaching out to Lily.

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