{"id":13054,"date":"2025-01-27T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=13054"},"modified":"2025-01-27T15:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T20:42:24","slug":"beach-bags-help-students-facing-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/beach-bags-help-students-facing-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach Bags help students facing hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jordan Schoonover and Carly Maher delivered a check recently to the VBEF for Beach Bags. Their team won first place in a “Support Social” event. From left, VBEF coordinator Debbie Hughes, Maher, Schoonover, and Renee Earling, VBEF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 1,200 \u201cBeach Bags\u201d go home with VBCPS students on most Friday afternoons.<\/p>\n

They are filled with cereal or oatmeal, shelf-stable milk, fruit cups, juice boxes, snacks and individual-sized meals, such as ravioli and macaroni and cheese.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Virginia Beach Education Foundation(VBEF) started the Beach Bags program to provide meals and healthy snacks to students who might otherwise go hungry during weekends, school breaks and summer.<\/p>\n

VBEF Coordinator Debbie Hughes said the initiative fills a huge need in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are real-life situations where families don\u2019t have the ability to provide for their kids as much as they would like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure every student has the equitable opportunity to get food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers gather weekly in a VBCPS warehouse to fill the bags, made possible through donations and monetary contributions.<\/p>\n

Support Social\u2019s Charity Fundraiser<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan Schoonover and friend Carly Maher have been friends since attending Kellam High School. They both work in the corporate world and started the nonprofit organization \u201cSupport Social.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to do something fun and raise money for causes,\u201d Schoonover said.<\/p>\n

The former Ocean Lakes High School teacher said she missed the \u201cgive back\u201d connection from her 11 years of teaching and was aware of the Beach Bags program.<\/p>\n

When her team of five won first place in Support Social\u2019s second annual flip cup charity tournament, they chose Beach Bags as the recipient of their $3,850 winnings.<\/p>\n

Everyone was onboard when they learned about how the program helps VBCPS students, Schoonover said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were happy to make the donation, especially knowing that the funds go directly to pay for the food in the Beach Bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louise Martin\u2019s Pennies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bev Sessoms was familiar with Beach Bags. She has helped stuff them in conjunction with the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival. Also, her sister-in-law is retired VBCPS principal Barbara Sessoms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pennies collected by Louise Martin, who passed away in 2019, were donated by her daughter Bev Sessoms to benefit the VBEF’s Beach Bags program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She donated $450 collected in pennies by her mother Louise Martin, who passed away in 2019 at age 96.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was passionate about helping children,\u201d Sessoms said.<\/p>\n

Martin once heard about a student in need at Birdneck Elementary, where Barbara Sessoms was principal.<\/p>\n

She wanted to help, so she purchased the young boy a pair of shoes. Bev Sessoms said her mother continued to inquire about the family and kept a photo of the young boy by her bedside.<\/p>\n

The initial plan for Martin\u2019s coins was to divide them between the grandchildren, who are now grown, or the seven great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Her family decided the money would make more of an impact as a Beach Bags donation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what her mother would have wanted, Sessoms said.<\/p>\n

Since each beach bag costs about $5, that means Martin provided 90 bags for VBCPS students in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery little bit helps,\u201d Sessoms said.<\/p>\n

Approximately 47,000 Beach Bags were distributed during the 2023-24 school year, and about 50,000 are expected to be sent home with students this year.<\/p>\n

For information about the Beach Bags program, call the VBEF at (757) 263-1949.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 1,200 \u201cBeach Bags\u201d go home with VBCPS students on most Friday afternoons. They are filled with cereal or oatmeal, shelf-stable milk, fruit cups, juice boxes, snacks and individual-sized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13058,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13054\/revisions\/13058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}