Welcome to LINK, Inc.

LINK, Inc. is a non-profit, 501C3 charity that exists to provide emergency food to people in need in the Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn, Virginia communities. The all-volunteer staff members at LINK believe in the power of selfless service and the importance of providing people in crisis with unconditional love.

News & Info

Letter from the President

LINK Video

Click here to watch a video explainingwhat LINK is all about.

Current Opportunities to Volunteer

Click here to go to SignUpGenius and see a list of LINK's current need for volunteers.
LINK Turns 40

LINK Turns 40

In 2012, LINK celebrates 40th years of providing services to the community. See our first charter.
Link in the News

LINK in the News

Read the top 10 LINK news stories of 2011 here.
 

 

LINK Finds a Pot of Gold in its Volunteers

 

As an all-volunteer organization, LINK depends entirely on volunteers to serve families in need in our community. Here are some highlights from March –

 

  • ·         A local Reston business, PMMI – PACK EXPO, organized a food drive benefiting LINK. This is the 2nd year that they have helped fill the shelves in the month of March.
  • ·         Seth, a member of a young Catholic adult group, replaced the ballasts in two of our light fixtures. The pantry has light!
  • ·         St Matthew sent a youth group to do the "yucky" stuff at the pantry on Saturday, March 16th, for their 40 hour fast.  The kids sorted produce, throwing away any bad ones; bagged milk by date; organized the bakery freezer; folded cloth bags and sorted plastic bags; bagged small toiletry items; and took out three bags of trash. 
  • ·         Community Lutheran's Third Grade Sunday School class made Easter cards to include in our deliveries.
  • ·         Girl Scout Troop 3341 (Sterling and Sugarland) dropped off a load of cookies. 
  • ·         Herndon High School's Education for Employment class donated 25 bags of food.
  • ·         Daisy Troop 385 (Algonkian and Countryside Elementary School students) sorted and shelved the 25 bags of food as well as some they brought, including cookies.
  • ·         We now have volunteers coming into the pantry Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to sort, bag, and distribute perishable food (Trader Joe's, Safeway, and schools).  Some of these volunteers are seeking service hours.
  • ·         Girl Scout Cadette Troop 1255, has been collecting fruit from the LINK refrigerator in the back of Clearview Elementary since October and making it into treats which are then donated to various senior apartments in the area.  So far, they've donated to Cascades Village, Kendrick Court, Herndon Senior Center, and William Watters House.  They've really enjoyed doing this and the recipients have loved getting the treats, so it's a win-win situation.   

Volunteer from Home for LINK - Can you imagine a volunteer job where you rarely have to leave your own home? LINK has the perfect position for you! We are looking for volunteers to answer phones just 3 times during the year for two weeks at a time. Volunteers call in remotely and retrieve messages left by LINK clients who need emergency food assistance, and then contact those clients and find out their food needs. You will schedule the dates for food deliveries and then send an email to the Delivery Coordinator and the Packing Coordinator each day that deliveries are scheduled. We are also looking for bilingual (Spanish) volunteers. The timeframe would be February/June/October. This is a great way to get involved in an organization that benefits clients in our communities and know that you are helping make a difference in someone’s life! If you are interested, please call Lisa Lombardozzi (703-973-4444) or email – President@linkagainsthunger.org.

 

Deliver to Clients in April – we have a few dates in April where we need some volunteers to help us deliver food to clients living in Herndon, Sterling or Ashburn. To view the list, go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/904044EA9A7292-april1

 

Mobile Food Pantry – On March 12th, we woke up to lots of rain. Our Mobile Food Pantry dates (2nd Tuesday of each month) have had a pretty spectacular run to date. We started in September 2012 and we’ve had unseasonably warm weather in the winter and sun shining days. So, on this day, I was a bit worried. My dear friend, Bob Ashdown, always reminds me to trust God. So, I put on my rain boots and headed over to meet the driver from the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB). I looked to the heavens and asked God a simple prayer – “Please stop the rain by 2 pm.” Well, He did and even earlier than that! At 1:00 pm, we unloaded the truck and the sun started to peek out from the clouds. MITRE sent some employees to help us and we had volunteers of all ages (teenagers to seniors) helping out too! We received about 8000 pounds of food from CAFB and distributed to 246 families (1218 individuals). We have some photos on our Facebook page – click here.

 

LINK Volunteer Lists Online – if you would like to see all of the lists where we have ongoing needs, click here. We need some volunteers on Fridays to pick up food from Clearview ES, Tuesdays at Dranesville ES, a lot of dates at Hutchison ES, and a lot of dates at Newton-Lee ES (Ashburn).

SIG

 

 

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:1-2)(ESV)

Lisa Lombardozzi
LINK President
www.linkagainsthunger.org