September is Hunger Action Month
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Stuff the Bus Food Drives
September 21 & 22, 10am - 5pm
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Help AFAC stuff an Arlington Transit bus with food donations at the
Giant Food locations at Virginia Square (3450 Washington Blvd)
and Lyon Village (3115 Lee Hwy)! There are still a few volunteer spots available. You can sign up for a 2 hour shift using the
volunteer calendar or emailing
volunteer4afac@afac.org for more information.
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Fresh Produce Drive
September 29, 8am - 12pm
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Purchase extra produce at the
Westover Farmers' Market (1644 N McKinley Rd) and donate them so families can receive farm fresh produce when they pick up their groceries at AFAC! We'll have flyers and collection bins for your donations on site.
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Open House
Monday, September 30, 7pm
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Learn more about how AFAC serves over 2,400 families each week at our Open House!
RSVP here.
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CANstruction
October 4 - 12
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The 16th annual CANstruction competition by AIA Northern Virginia will be at Dulles Airport this year! On Friday, October 3, local architecture firms will build larger than life structures made completely out of canned goods, all of which will come to AFAC at the end! Structures will be up in the baggage claim area between October 4-12.
Click here to view photos of previous CANstruction entries.
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CROP Hunger Walk
October 12
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Strap on your fitness trackers for the 50th annual CROP Hunger Walk! Register your team or join AFAC's for a 5K or 10K walk through Arlington. Proceeds go towards international hunger relief organizatons and 25% going locally to AFAC!
Click for more information.
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The 14th annual Arlington Turkey Trot registration page is live! AFAC is one of six race beneficiaries for this charity race. Sign up now for this Thanksgiving morning race before space runs out!
https://arlingtonvaturkeytrot.org/
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Volunteer Spotlight: Grocery Store Food Drives
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Grocery store food drives allow us to collect a large amount of food in a single day. It's a great way for us to be visible, most shoppers enjoy the small ask and are happy to help, and the stores enjoy the increase in sales. Volunteers help out AFAC by handing out flyers to customers, drive the AFAC van to and from the grocery store, and help sort the food when it gets back to our warehouse. Because of the generosity of the community, we often collect more than 1,000 pounds of food in a single day!
You don't have to wait for AFAC to plan a grocery store food drive though, we often have groups (church, scouts, schools, etc.) will ask a store manager for permission to hold their own food drive for a few hours on a Saturday and then they'll deliver what is collected directly to AFAC. Our website has our suggested list of items and other helpful hints.
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This year, Arlington County, Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE), Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture (FOUA), AFAC, and Marymount University are combining efforts to offer events throughout October.
Click to view all the Urban Agriculture Events!
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Plot Against Hunger Garden Tour
October 5-6
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For Urban Agriculture Month, AFAC will host open houses at many of the gardens that donate to AFAC’s Plot Against Hunger program! Gardeners will welcome visitors and answer questions about why, what, and how they grow food to donate to AFAC. Come meet gardeners who make this possible, get practical ideas about how to garden in small spaces, and gain an appreciation of the vitality and scope of urban agriculture in Arlington County.
View the interactive map and sign up here for the garden tour!
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Join AFAC's Glean Team and spend a morning helping us bring in field-fresh harvests! Volunteers are needed to help pick winter squash and potatoes at USDA-Beltsville this coming
Tuesday, September 24 from 8:30-11:30 am. Carpooling can be arranged. Contact
volunteer4afac@afac.org for details.
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Garden Talks
Wednesdays, 7 pm
Arlington Central Library
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Our 2019 Garden Talks at Central Library is coming to an end for the season! For a full list of topics covered this year,
click here.
Upcoming topics:
September 25: International Flavors from the Garden
October 2: Garlic - Growing, History
October 9: Growing Microgreens & Sprouts
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We had an amazing golf tournament on Monday! Thank you to our title sponsor, Credibility International, our host, Army Navy Country Club, event sponsors, participants, and everyone who made the event possible!
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Thank you to everyone who donated food or money to the Shredding for Hunger event on Saturday! 398 lbs of food and $1,000 was collected in total. Special thanks to Ann Wilson of Keller Williams, Universal Title Arlington, and Arlington Church of the Brethren.
Thank you to everyone who donated to the Drive Away Hunger food drive at BJ's warehouse last weekend! Over 2,200 lbs of food was donated!
Huge thanks to the Arlington County Department of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management and the team who put together last weekend's Disaster Relief Trials and Lidl for donating over 5,000 lbs of canned goods to AFAC!
Thanks to Caroline and Helen Otteni for collecting 412 pounds of peanut butter during their annual summer food drive!
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Thank you to all those who held food drives or donated to Plot Against Hunger in August!
10th and Barton Community Garden; Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture; Arlington Church of the Brethren; Arlington Church of Christ; Arlington County's Aging & Disability Services Division; Arlington Presbyterian Church and Garden; Bethel UCC; Brigade of Mercy; Calvary UMC; Cherrydale Branch Library; Cherrydale United Methodist Church; Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints; Central Library & Garden; Clarendon Presbyterian Garden; Columbia Pike Branch Library; Culpepper Gardens; Darcie S.; Design Cuisine; Faith Lutheran Church and Garden; Feds Feeds Families; First Presbyterian Church & Garden; Fort Barnard Community Garden; Friends of Refugees; Girl Scout Troop #60005; Glebe and Lang Garden Club; Glebe Community Garden; Great Harvest Bread; JK Farms; Lancaster Co-Op CSA; Loudon Hunger Relief; Marymount University's Food for Thought Garden Club; Memorial Baptist Church; Mount Olive Baptist Church; Nando Peri-Peri; Nestle; NOVA Catholic Community; NOVA Friend of Refugees Potomac Overlook Garden; Restoration Anglican Church; Resurrection Lutheran Church and Garden; Rock Spring UCC & Garden; Roy Croom; Sherwood Apartments; Shirlington Branch Library; Society of Saint Andrew's; St. Andrew's Episcopal Church; St. Ann's Catholic Church; St. George's Episcopal Church and Garden; St. John's Episcopal Church; St. Peter's Episcopal Church; St. Stephen's and St. Agnes Lower School Garden; Susan Howell's Garden; Territory Foods; TJMS Garden; USDA Agricultural Research Service; U.S Fish and Wildlife; Walter Reed Annex Garden; Westover Branch Library & Garden; Women's Club of Arlington
Many thanks to the farmers' markets and farm vendors in Arlington who donate unsold fresh and local produce to AFAC all season long. Participating farmers' markets include Arlington Courthouse, Ballston, Columbia Pike, Crystal City, Fairlington, Marymount, Rosslyn, and Westover.
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Fresh News is generously sponsored by Washington Workplace
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Arlington Food Assistance Center | 703.845.8486 |
www.afac.org
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