For the last five years, Northern Virginia fraternity and sorority organizations have provided low-income families with food for the Thanksgiving holidays as part of its service to the community, according to Charles F. Parker Jr., chair and second vice polemarch of the Alexandria-Fairfax Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. “We help when we can,” Parker told the AFRO. “I fell after five years we’ve made an impact.”
The Fairfax County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and the Zeta Chi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. have delivered food boxes to families based on income and economic status in Northern Virginia through the NOVA Project Giveback. The project serves as a tool to mentally, spiritually, and economically uplift low-income Northern Virginia communities.
This is the first year, the project has partnered with the Northern Virginia Urban League. According to Parker, there will be more events the two will partner for in the future.
Parker’s will to help others motivated him to expand his volunteerism by creating a subset of the project in Northern Virginia with the Kappas and other Greek organizations in the area. Before he created NOVA Project Giveback, he participated in Project GiveBack in 2009, helping families in the D.C. and Maryland regions.
According to Parker, the project’s committee wants to deliver boxes of food to 300 families this November. Boxes are usually given to families the week before Thanksgiving. One-hundred and sixty-five families received boxes in 2013. He said each box lasts, on average, about two weeks.
The organizations also partnered with the Northern Virginia Urban League to reach needy families.
“I feel it doesn’t matter if I am the CEO of this organization,” Cynthia Dinkins, president and CEO of the league told the AFRO. “I need to roll up my sleeves and work with the community to make things happen.”
At a recent awards banquet Sept. 6, the chapter thanked NuCoreVision Inc., Davis-Paige Management Systems LLC, Fairfax County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Zeta Chi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and Nu Xi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. for their monetary contribution of $12,500 to the project. “We need organizations like the Urban League and Kappa now more than ever to make sure our young Black and brown males know that they are loved and valued,” Dinkins said.
For more information about the project or to donate visit, http://novapgb.wix.com/novapgb.