Food donations help residents of Annandale apartments
About 200 residents of Fairmont Gardens in Annandale collected donated food Thursday afternoon at a weekly event in the parking lot hosted by the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC).
World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit founded by Chef José Andrés, and the SevaTruck Foundation contributed packaged meals – chicken, rice, and vegetables – and there were bags of fresh lemons and boxes of panettone dessert bread and applesauce from Food for Others.
Volunteers from Poe Middle School, Annandale United Methodist Church, and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church kept things running smoothly.
LAJC used to host a food distribution event at Fairmont Gardens a couple of times a month. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, they’re doing it weekly, community organizer Arnoldo Borja.
Related story: Huge crowd turns up for free food at Falls Church HS
“We’re under crises all the time,” Borja says. Fairmont Gardens had been beset by ICE raids, and now the virus taking a big toll on the community. He says about 50 residents have gotten sick; no one has died.
The vast majority of Fairmont Gardens residents are Latino immigrants. Many have been laid off and many others have jobs as essential workers – such as construction workers, cooks, and house cleaners – with no health benefits. The people who are doing this work “are a huge support of this community,” Borja says.
The only way people can afford the rents at the Fairmont Gardens – $1,843 a month for a two-bedroom apartment – is by doubling up. And that increases the risk that someone with COVID will infect others.
That is one of the factors that has led Annandale to become a COVID hotspot.
At the food distribution event, we met Fairmont Gardens resident Sandra, who had tested positive for Covid in March and was treated briefly at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She was able to isolate herself in a bedroom and successfully avoided passing on the virus to her four children.
An immigrant from El Salvador, Sandra had been a house cleaner for 20 years, but had to stop working because of a bad back. She also suffers from diabetes and asthma. Her daughter supports the family by working at a store.
LAJC has been hosting food distribution events at Fairmont Gardens and Culmore for the past 14 years, Borja says. The original idea was to bring lawyers to the community, along with the food, to help residents with immigration and other legal issues. But that’s not happening now because of the pandemic.
There are similar food distribution events at Annandale United Methodist Church’s mission on Heritage Drive Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and the Parliaments Apartments in Annandale on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
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