Alexandria, Help Fill This Truck With Food Saturday, July 11

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Alexandria is a city where the median home recently sold for more than $646,000. Yet many of the people who keep this city running—waiting tables, ringing up groceries, caring for children, and working at gas stations and car washes—cannot keep pace with its soaring cost of living.

Their children attend school with your children and play on the same Little League teams. Some of those families do not always have enough food.

This Saturday, July 11, The Zebra Press is asking Alexandrians to help Fill the Truck with nonperishable food for neighbors in need. The collection will take place from 6 a.m. to noon at the Del Ray Farmers Market, 2311 Mount Vernon Ave.

Look for longtime Del Ray community leader Pat Miller and her silver pickup truck. Donations of canned goods, cereal, pasta, peanut butter, rice, soup and other shelf-stable foods will benefit ALIVE! and other Alexandria nonprofits.

“We have already collected more than 10,000 pounds of food since we started this campaign, but the need is not going away—it is increasing,” Miller said. “The people who need food are families. These are your child’s friends at school.”

Hunger Is Closer Than Many Alexandrians Realize

Alexandria’s 2025 State of Health Report found that 13 percent of the city’s children are food insecure, including one in four Black children.

More than 14,000 Alexandrians rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to help put food on their tables, according to city figures. That number includes 8,076 children and 1,795 seniors.

A separate city study found that 8 percent of Alexandria households are food insecure—and that 44 percent of food-insecure residents do not qualify for government assistance because of their income. Alexandria’s Community Health Assessment also found that 8.7 percent of residents have no health insurance.

The statistics illustrate how quickly Alexandria’s high housing, transportation, medical and child care costs can consume a working family’s paycheck. Someone can work every day, earn too much to qualify for assistance, and still struggle to afford groceries.

As Miller noted, asking for food is rarely easy.

“It’s embarrassing and tough to ask for food,” she said. “We want to make it as easy as possible to share what so many of us have an abundance of—extra food in our cupboards.”

She suggested turning Saturday’s donation into a family activity.

“You can have fun with the kids and buy one special bag of groceries just for the Fill the Truck campaign,” Miller said. “Let them help choose what another family might need.”

Those who cannot attend Saturday’s collection will have another opportunity at the Old Town North Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market on the last Sunday of July. This month’s collection will take place Sunday, July 26, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 100 N. Royal St.