[January 03, 2010] Scarton: SERVE needs help with its aging truck fleet Tweet Jan 03, 2010 (News and Messenger - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- If only a truck was donated ... Prince William County, Va. -- Securing Emergency Resources Through Volunteer Efforts Inc., which provides food to an average of 900 needy families a month, is being stalled in its effort to provide assistance to them by aging trucks. Local grocery stores, which offer their perishables for pick-up every morning, are some of SERVE's biggest contributors. Unfortunately, SERVE is struggling to capitalize on these donations due to an aging, broken down and diminished fleet of trucks. With just two operating trucks, volunteer drivers can't get to every grocery store to pick up the available food on time. SERVE will be able to bring more food into its food pantry with additional trucks to do pickups, thus meet-ing families' increased need for food assistance. While at least one truck is needed to replace one that is beyond fixing, the more SERVE can get the more food it can provide to those in need. A steadily increasing number of families are coming to SERVE's food distribution center in this down economy to ask for help so their children don't have to go to bed hungry. In November, 1,548 families received food assistance. There was a 60 percent increase in families seeking assistance in the last year. With support from the Manassas community, SERVE hopes it can get back on the road and overcome this problem. Help can be provided in the following ways: n Churches, civic groups, office departments or sports teams can do donations drives and/or take up collec-tions from group member n Car dealers can rummage their leftover unsold stock of vans and truck n Auto shops can offer their services to keep all the vehicles on the road, or n The public can volunteer to be drivers and driver assistants for morning food pickups. SERVE is a program of Northern Virginia Family Service, a private nonprofit established in 1924 that is dedicated to helping individuals and families find new paths to self-reliance and brighter futures. The or-ganization distributes $2 million worth of food annually to an average of 900 families each month, as well as providing 17,605 bed-nights at its shelter for homeless families, and more than $160,000 in rent, utility and gas assistance. Family Service helps more than 20,000 people find affordable housing, counseling and child development programs; access low-cost medical and dental services; utilize foster and respite care; participate in job training; benefit from torture and trauma recovery; and more. For more information visit http://www.nvfs.org. Some 175 volunteers came to recent gift wrapping parties to wrap gifts for Prince William County sen-iors. As part of the popular and growing "Be a Santa to a Senior" program, volunteers of all ages came in groups with their friends, family, civic groups, church groups and high school clubs. These volun-teers came with big hearts to make sure that area senior would not be forgotten this holiday season. Sponsored by Home Instead Senior Care, "Be a Santa to a Senior" provides gifts to Prince William County seniors who are lonely or financially challenged. Ninety-five different community and civic organizations, along with businesses, joined to make all this possible. Twenty-one nonprofits and senior living facilities indentified the seniors meeting this criteria. Forty-three businesses sponsored trees and wreaths. Each tree or wreath featured ornaments with the names of seniors and their respective gift requests. Holiday shoppers purchased the items and then returned them unwrapped. Another 31 groups helped sup-port the program in various ways. For example, students at Stonewall Jackson High School made the orna-ments, the Virginia Generals U-9 baseball team came to wrap gifts, and the Prince William County Sher-iff's office delivered many of the gifts. In this tight economy, the residents of the county gave generously. According to Kendra Kielbasa, program director, "Last year, we had 250 seniors we were aiming to support. Thanks to the outpouring of support from local businesses and community volunteers, we were actually able to serve 631 seniors. This year the need has been tremendous. We received the names of nearly 1,200 seniors in need of gifts ... and we delivered gifts to them all." Kielbasa estimates the average gift value to be $35 to $40, with a total value of gifts received to be in ex-cess of $40,000. For the second year, the Prince William County-Greater Manassas Chamber of Commerce has organized a winter clothing drive. Last year, 550 kits (each contains a sweatshirt, sweatpants, hat and gloves) were distributed to area schoolchildren. This year the goal is 750 kits, with 300 kits already purchased. The kits were most "warmly" received. Bill Horan, principal of Loch Lomond Elementary School, said, "The Winter Warm Ups were a real blessing for our students. Many of them had no warm clothes and the donations meant that they did not have to come to school cold." ... kits are $10 and can be purchased by visiting http://www.pwcgmcc.org and clicking to Donate to Winter Warm-up! To see more of the News & Messenger or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.insidenova.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, News and Messenger, Manassas, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. 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