Fairfax County Public Schools alum Karen Joseph never set out to launch a nonprofit. But a single moment in a high school social worker’s office changed everything.

The Fairfax native and mom of three was in the office of a social worker at Herndon High School one day in 2014 when she noticed something unusual kept happening.

“Kids kept coming in and getting food out of a drawer behind her desk,” she said. “So I finally stopped our meeting, and I was like, ‘What’s going on? Who are these kids and why are they coming in here to get food?’”

The answer stunned her: the food was for students experiencing hunger. This planted a seed to fill a huge need within schools. She found out the social worker was personally funding it out of her own pocket. She was making a trip to Costco each month, on her own dime, to buy the food.

“I said, ‘That is a problem! You shouldn’t have to do that with your own money.’”

That moment sparked what would become a powerful movement. With no formal plan but a deep commitment to helping students, Karen offered to help, and began a two-year long process that involved recruiting friends, neighbors and community members to donate, sort and distribute food to schools.

“I knew of organizations like Backpack Buddies, but they focus on elementary schools, and the middle and high schools needed it too,” she said. “But nothing existed back then, so I decided to work on it myself.”

That grassroots effort eventually became the 501(c)3 nonprofit Food for Neighbors and has since begun offering assistance in Arlington and Loudoun County schools. 

“I just kind of started a little passion project, making sure that Herndon Middle and Herndon High School students had access to food, but the need exploded! And that was something I never anticipated. Now I’m running this big organization, and I call it big because we were nothing nine years ago.” 

Food for Neighbors’ mission is to end teen hunger in Northern Virginia by raising awareness and inspiring community action.

News about Food for Neighbors has spread like wildfire, with 98,000 students receiving food in three counties, including at 53 schools in Fairfax County.

“When people understand the need, they step up, because no teen should ever go hungry. To me, it’s a no-brainer. When I explain what we do and why we do it, people just want to be involved.”

Karen said the Fairfax community has been amazing at donating, volunteering, picking up food donations, sorting and delivering them to schools.

“I’m very blessed in that I get to see the generosity of the community. I get to see how much the community does care, regardless of what you see in the news, regardless of what is going on. I see it regularly, how much individuals, churches, organizations and businesses care and how generous they are.”

She’s also been impressed with how FCPS has collaborated with Food for Neighbors, in accepting support and creating solutions and distribution models that work for their schools. 

She said she became an Ignite Partner – a high-value, long-term relationship between a business, not-for-profit, or governmental entity and FCPS after meeting with Jay Garant, FCPS’s now retired former head of the Business and Community Partnership Office. 

Karen said Garant and a few others helped get her organization in front of different principals to get the word out about what they do and how they can benefit students.

“I’m in this extreme growth period, I’m trying to stay in front of it and keep up with it. It’s a good problem to have, but a very big problem,” she said.

Her work caught the eye of a community member who decided to nominate her to be inducted into the Educate Fairfax FCPS Hall of Fame two years ago.

She said she was honored.

“I think it was one of the proudest things that I’ve ever been recognized for. I was very, very proud of it,” Joseph beamed. 

“I was looking around at my fellow nominees, and I was like, this is amazing,” she said, adding that the Hall of Fame sheds light on FCPS grads who are still in the community doing amazing things.

“And it helps us connect with each other, and it helps us want to invest back into Fairfax County Public Schools individually because we know what we got out of it. We want to make sure the next generation is getting out of it what they can. 

“It’s a wonderful county and I’ve been happy raising my kids here. It’s a big county, but when you can come together like this and make those connections, it makes it feel smaller, more like a community.”

Karen is currently working with Educate Fairfax’s Food for All campaign to see where there are gaps that the two organizations can work together to fill. 

“Our missions are very aligned, and people ask, ‘Can you do the same thing as somebody else?’ and I’m like ‘Absolutely, do you know how much of a need there is?’ If Food for Neighbors could feed everyone, we would, but we can’t. That’s why we need to work together to make an impact.”

Joseph said it means a lot to the students to see people in the community who care about them.

“It’s FCPS alumni who are helping the future generation. And they see that they matter to their community and that people who attended the schools before them care and they see their needs.”

All month long, you can donate to Educate Fairfax’s Food for All Campaign to help students who are struggling with food insecurity.

If you want to stay connected with fellow FCPS graduates, join the Educate Fairfax Alumni Network

Do you know an outstanding FCPS graduate who should be recognized for their work in the community? Nominate them for the FCPS Hall of Fame by May 31!