Thank You to Our Food Bridge Supporters!

We loved this note from Ms. L, who is receiving regular food deliveries from our Food Bridge Supporting Organizations while she works with our Financial Literacy and Workforce Development staff and volunteers to improve her family’s financial outlook. 

“Our family is so grateful for everything that you do and have done for us. The gift cards that we receive every other week have greatly helped us with the purchase of some staple food items, cleaning supplies and toiletries. Before we started getting this assistance, there was great worry if we would run out of toilet paper or feminine hygiene products before we would have the funds to purchase them. We thankfully do receive SNAP benefits, but having the extra assistance from the gift cards allows us to stretch our SNAP benefits even further. We are also using this time to work toward improving our future by getting financial mentoring and education [workforce] training, also provided by Britepaths. We can’t thank Britepaths enough! Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to stay afloat while we work towards a better future. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Holiday season!”

We are grateful to everyone who is helping families like Ms. L’s stay afloat and work toward a brighter future by donating and volunteering for Britepaths and the Financial Empowerment Center at South County.

And we would like to extend a special thank you to our Food Bridge Supporting Organizations, who donate funds and gift cards that not only put food on the table and free up funds so families can build savings and pay off bills and debt, but relieve stress and offer hope for the future. In 2021, we have assisted 81 families with regular deliveries of grocery store gift cards for up to 6 months, helping a total of 306 people, 112 of whom are children, for a total of 811 gift card deliveries.

In December 2021, Our Lady of Good Counsel donated funds so we could mail grocery store gift cards to families, and the Democratic Women of Clifton and Northern Virginia are collecting gift cards and funds that will be distributed to our families in January, as they have done for many years. 

The other Food Bridge Supporting Organizations who assisted families this year are: Christ Lutheran Church, Church of the Holy Comforter, Fairfax United Methodist Church, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Rustic Love Vienna, St. Mary Orthodox Church, Temple Rodef Shalom, Unity of Fairfax, Vienna Baptist Church and Vienna Presbyterian Church. Several of these organizations have been supporting this program for one or more decades, and a few were founding members of our organization when it was established as Our Daily Bread in 1984.

We are also grateful to our Food Bridge Grantors whose funds helped us provide gift card deliveries when we had gaps in our delivery calendar: American Legion Post 177 Fairfax, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Fairfax County Community Funding Pool, Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation, Giant Food Oakton/Vienna Little League, Good Shepherd Catholic Church Shepherd’s Gate Grant and MAXIMUS Foundation.

We are seeking additional Organizations to commit to providing gift cards or funds for one or two Sundays on our Delivery Calendar in 2022. If your organization would like to help or learn more, contact Mila Cobos at mcobos@britepaths.org or 703.273.8829. Click Here for more information.

We also have an ongoing need for donations in our Emergency Pantry. Click Here for details.