The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has declared May as “Hunger Awareness Month” in Loudoun.

As the Board’s proclamation notes, food pantries in Loudoun County receive generous donations over the holidays and winter months, but as summer approaches donations significantly decrease.

During the summer months, the county’s largest food pantry, operated by Loudoun Interfaith Relief, increases the amount provided to each qualified child by 25 percent to make up for the loss of school-based programs. With a decrease in donations and more area families in need, area food panties are stretched thin. Loudoun Interfaith Relief reports that its food supplies are “dangerously low.” 

Through the Hunger Awareness Month proclamation, the Board is sending a message of support to those in need, raising awareness of the critical issue, and encouraging citizens to donate food items to one of the area’s local food pantries.

A nine-time Virginia Honor Band, the Battlefield High School Marching Bobcats have been selected as one of only six U.S. high school marching bands to participate in the first-ever commemorative D-Day parade on its 70th Anniversary in Normandy, France, in June 2014.

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to liberate Western Europe from the occupation of Nazi Germany. Seventy years later on June 6, 2014, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first village liberated by American paratroopers, will host a historic parade. Military units, marching bands, along with cultural and civic groups will march down the same streets that were lined with American troops in 1941. Dignitaries and military officials from the United States, Canada, and all across Europe will attend. The President of the United States, cabinet members, and officials representing all branches of the Armed Forces will also be present.