Help Where It's Needed Most

It was 12:07 p.m., and the line was forming already. A woman with a small child in tow. A man in scuffed work boots and a leather jacket. Two women with gray hair and wrinkles. Two more with neither.

Action and Community Through Service (ACTS) doesn’t open its food pantry until 1 p.m. on Tuesdays. But that didn’t stop the needy of eastern Prince William County from lining up early outside the “food building” just off U.S. Rte. 1 in Dumfries.

If they lined up late, explained Frances Harris, the executive director, they might miss out on the best items—or miss out altogether.

ACTS has been partially funded for many years via United Way of the National Capital Area. Distributing free food to the needy has long been one of its cornerstone programs. But in 2009, the need for the program has intensified.

“Seven years ago, we’d see 30-40 households a day,” said Harris, a former Marine Corps captain who has run ACTS for nearly two years. “In the last three weeks, it has been 100 households a day.”

Who are these additional people? “People who had been making a pretty decent living,” Harris said. But they may have lost a job recently, or had a house foreclosed, or both.

“We’re starting to see real estate agents who haven’t sold a house in two years,” explained Chris Caseman, a relationship manager for UWNCA and a Prince William County resident for three decades. ACTS still serves what Harris calls its “chronically low-income population.” But now some of the people in line are first-timers. Uncomfortable first-timers.

“They are embarrassed. Yes, they are,” she said. Some don’t want to stand in line outside the food pantry “because they don’t think they’re one of them.”

Yet it’s all one community in the lobby of the ACTS food pantry. The great majority of people who seek services of any kind there are locals—often longtime locals. And the food comes from locals, too.

“In the summer, we get donations of fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers’ market,” Harris said. “Groceries, schools, churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, they’re all involved” in running food drives throughout the year, she said.

But a key piece of the puzzle is dollars. And in that department, United Way of the National Capital Area is a significant player. ACTS’ budget is approximately $2.5 million this year. UWNCA donors supply about eight percent of that total. If that sum disappeared, “We simply couldn’t do everything we need to do,” Harris said.

“This community really doesn’t want this community to go hungry,” Harris said. As a result, she doesn’t expect UWNCA funding to dwindle or die. But she could always use more, especially since there’s no obvious end to the increased need. “We’re pretty even with the demand,” she said. She’d like to stay there. UWNCA can help that happen. It has the track record. It brings help where it’s needed most.