14th Annual School Food Drive Collects Record 17,462 Pounds of Food From 33 Schools for Blue Ridge Area Food Bank

CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Huge results from the 14th annual School Food Drive for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank which this spring included Valley schools for the first time joining Charlottesville and Albemarle schools. Drive coordinator and Albemarle High School student Lily Stendig says a record 33 schools participating this past March collecting 17,642 pounds of food… good for 16,800 meals. Among the new participants were 5 schools from the Greater Charlottesville area and 10 from the Shenandoah Valley. And there’s some new student leadership as Tandem Friends School in Sofia Smith who joined Lily coordinating the drive. Smith said seeing the excitement on her peers faces in this effort has been “really, really heartwarming and really cool”. This year’s contribution pushes the number to over 100,000 meals provided by this drive since 2011.