Grocery donations collected for needy next Saturday at area stores

ACCA volunteers at the 2014 Day of Service food drive at Shoppers.

When you do your grocery shopping next Saturday, buy a little extra for those in need. Sept. 26 is the “Day to Serve” food drive to benefit the pantry operated by the Annandale Community for Christian Action.  ACCA volunteers will be stationed at four grocery stores – Giant on Columbia Pike in Annandale, Giant in the Bradlick Shopping Center, Safeway on Little River Turnpike, and Shoppers at Landmark Plaza – from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

As customers enter a grocery store, volunteers will suggest items needed for the pantry and will collect them as shoppers leave the store.

ACCA is an alliance of 26 churches in the Annandale/Bailey’s Crossroads area that provide assistance to those in need. The Day of Service food drive was organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Annandale, with volunteers from John Calvin Presbyterian Church, St. Albans Episcopal Church, and the Annandale Rotary Club.

The food pantry is most in need of canned products, such as tuna, meat, and vegetables; cooking oil; pasta; dried beans; lentils; flour; sugar; soap; detergent; and diapers, says ACCA volunteer Richard Magleby. The pantry depends on donations, and stocks are way down. “Even in Annandale, which we think of as an affluent area, there are a lot of families where the children go to school hungry,” he says.

Unlike many food pantries, where those in need pick up food, the Annandale pantry is delivery only. ACCA gets the addresses of needy families from Fairfax County social services agencies and volunteers drop off a one or two-week food supply.

The need has been growing every year, Magleby says. In 2014, ACCA delivered food to 1,131 households, up from about 1,000 in 2013, which was more than the previous year.