Every year the senior class organizes a project to benefit the local homeless shelter and this year’s senior class has decided to take a new approach. Instead of raising money through a school event (such as past years’ fashion shows and book sales), the officers resolved to deliver dinner to the shelter and its 14 residents every Tuesday from December through March.

Vice Principal Tim Guy, motivated by his experience with cooking meals for the shelter through other organizations, proposed the original idea. Seniors would meet with staff members once a week and prepare a home-cooked meal at the school and then deliver it to the Winter Shelter, located just blocks away behind Don Beyer Volvo. However, last week during a visit to the shelter, the senior officers learned of a significant impediment to the project, one that would affect not only the Falls Church Shelter but also hundreds of shelters across Fairfax County.

Weeks ago, the Fairfax County Health Department outlawed any food cooked in a non-certified kitchen from being served in homeless shelters. Such regulations were set in an attempt to ensure the protection of shelter residents from food poisoning. Nonetheless, the code left shelters throughout the area, including the one in Falls Church, in a bind, as much of the food they receive is prepared in church, school or private kitchens. At this point, only county-approved commercial kitchens, i.e., restaurants, would be able to serve meals at the shelters.

Class officers Elena Martinez and Irene Morrison-Moncure look on as a shelter volunteer checks the temperature of the chicken, which, according to state and county regulations, must be no less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit.  (Photo by Anna Duning)