Please consider a donation to our Help the Homeless initiative this month. Through our efforts involving thousands of volunteers and donors last year, Food for Others received more than $75,000 from Fannie Mae through this innovative fundraising incentive program for nonprofits. Right now there are two ways you can help us earn a large grant from Fannie Mae again for 2012. 

1.  To participate online, click here and register as a "virtual walker." Select Food for Others as the beneficiary from the menu of beneficiary organizations, and register as a VIRTUAL WALKER. We need 4,000 participants in order to qualify for a $50,000 grant from Fannie Mae, and your registration fee comes back fully as a donation to food for Others. Fannie Mae keeps nothing.

2. If you prefer to write a check that can help, sponsor Food for Others by writing a check. Just mail your check to Food for Others, 2938 Prosperity Ave, Fairfax, VA 22031, by Oct. 30, but please be sure to make it payable to Help the Homeless. Your donation to us in this way qualifies us for a 20% matching grant from Fannie Mae. 

Twenty-four percent of Northern Virginia families are housing insecure according to a "Portrait of Children" report published in 2011 by the University of Virginia. 76,000 children in Northern Virginia live in families with income low enough to qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. Of course many more families struggle here because we have some of the highest housing costs in the nation.

Food for Others qualifies for this Fannie Mae match because we are a homelessness-prevention organization. By providing free food to families and individuals in need — through our emergency food, monthly and school backpack programs at our warehouse and neighborhood sites, and by distributing food through our 28 partner organizations — we enable our clients to use more of their own assets for housing.