As Va. proposal to expand free school meals stalls, nonprofit works to ensure no child goes hungry

On a summer afternoon, a 9-year-old girl faced BetterALife founder Elizabeth Ford.

The young girl’s mother told her to stop by the Purcellville, Virginia-based nonprofit, and she told Ford that she hadn’t yet eaten that day. So Ford made her an entire pot of macaroni and cheese. She ate the entire thing.

Since 2016, Ford’s nonprofit has offered students and families the opportunity to take food home and ensure they don’t go hungry.

But she said there’s more to be done. For years, she’s been urging Virginia lawmakers to expand access to free meals at school.

In the current Virginia General Assembly session, a proposal that would have expanded access to free school breakfast has stalled. It would have cost more than $37 million, according to one state estimate. It didn’t make it out of a state Senate committee, and has been continued to the 2027 session.

So Ford is taking the matter into her own hands, working to expand the nonprofit’s reach.

“We can’t stop fighting,” Ford said. “That’s my motivation because these children are worth it. They are worth so much more than nos. And for every no, there is always a yes somewhere. I’ll keep hitting my nos until I get my yes.”

In 2021, BetterALife launched a weekly homework club. Students eat a hot meal while volunteers help them with their school work. At least 40 kids attend each week.

But sometimes, the conversations go beyond homework help and extend to topics like how to create a plan to attend college.

“Growing up, my parents didn’t really know a lot of English,” said Natalie Calderon, who has been attending the homework club for about two years. “Coming here has helped me because the volunteers do know English, and they have gone through what I’m going through right now.”

The sense of togetherness alone is having an impact.

“It’s a safe environment, and I feel really safe here,” eighth grader Keily Machado said.

The group also offers cooking classes, so kids can be self-sufficient and make meals without potentially hurting themselves.

The food comes from individual donors and grant funding, and kids can visit the food pantry every day. Families are welcomed once a week.

“It is beyond words to know that a child can wake up and know that they have hope,” Ford said. “And that’s what these bags bring, that’s what the food brings, that’s what the homework club brings, is hope for them, for a future that they didn’t think they had.”

For Ford, the mission is deeply personal. She said she was “a child of hunger, and all these programs are based on my life, how I grew up.”

She’s planning to expand into Brunswick, Maryland, and is looking for other ways to help.

“We’re not going to stop until every child has got a meal in their hand every day,” Ford said.

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