Beach Bags, a Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) program that provides meals and healthy snacks to disadvantaged VBCPS students who may not have enough to eat over weekends and school vacations, will host a food drive Thursday, March 23.
The food drive will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at two locations: Pembroke Mall (in the Kohl’s parking lot behind Walgreens) and Southern Bank, 1756 Laskin Road.
“With spring break coming up, the donations from this food drive are particularly critical,” said Dr. Amber Rach, the school division’s director of community engagement. She noted that the program, which helps approximately 400 students each week, operates entirely on donations.
“The generosity of our community is overwhelming,” Rach said. “We simply could not operate this program without their support.”
Donations of individually-sized, shelf-stable food items are welcomed in all quantities. Specifically, each Beach Bag contains:
- Individual cereal boxes or oatmeal packages;
- Single portion, shelf-stable main course items such as ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs, chunky soups, beef stew, chicken and dumplings, tuna or chunk chicken or macaroni and cheese;
- Fruit cups and/or 100 percent juice boxes that are 4 oz. or larger;
- Shelf-stable 8 oz. milk cartons (juice box size); and
- Snack items such as granola bars, cereal bars, raisins, pretzels or snack crackers.
Tax-deductible donations are also accepted at the food drive or on a daily basis at the School Administration Building, 2512 George Mason Drive, Virginia Beach. All monetary donations are used entirely to purchase food for the program. No administrative costs are taken from donations given to the Beach Bags program, which has been in existence since 2009.
To download a flyer with the list of food items or to find out more about the program, visit vbschools.com/beachbags.