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All are kings, queens at special prom
Area real estate doing great in 2018
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Colonial Forge wrestlers going for state title VOL. 29 | NUM. 50
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FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Organization battles hunger
MOVING TO THE MUSIC
TRACY BELL
tbell@insidenova.com
T
im White can relate to children who don’t have enough food to eat. He grew up poor and hungry, but now runs Stafford Food Security in order to make a difference and help change the outcome for hungry children and struggling families. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit, based in Stafford, is battling food insecurity in the community by working with churches, schools, food banks and other nonprofits in the region to eliminate hunger of children. White, the executive director of Stafford Food Security, said that in partnering with the schools, he is able use educators as the distributors. Teachers and school staff are in a prime position to identify children in need, he said. Stafford Food Security is able to pass the meals to the educators with no questions asked about family income and no qualifications. “We do everything else,” White told InsideNoVa. “We raise the money, we pack the bags and we deliver the bags. Super simple, super easy.” The organization is currently working in many of Stafford’s middle and elementary schools and is assisting Spotsylvania schools as well. The organization collects shelf-stable food and packs meals for the families in backpacks matched to students’ school colors. The children are then able to take
Whether it was slow dancing or something more upbeat, area residents got a jump on the St. Valentine’s Day celebrations at the annual dinner and dance at the Rowser building Feb. 9. For more from the evening, see Page 6. ALEKS DOLZENKO | INSIDENOVA
School board addresses drinking-water safety ALEX KOMA
akoma@insidenova.com
The Stafford County School Board addressed drinking-water safety at a meeting Tuesday, based on a prior report that elevated lead levels exist in some of the schools. School board member Patricia Healy, Rock Hill District, asked for an updated status report on “what the issues are, what we’ve done and what we plan on doing in the future.” She said that the public would be interested and “it affects all of us because it’s across the schools.”
Stafford County Public Schools’ Superintendent Bruce Benson explained that “the water issue is about the fixtures.” He said that the testing manner being used allows what’s causing the problem to be isolated so that the problem can be fixed. Changing the faucets and fixtures will reduce the lead levels in the water, Benson said. He explained that some component of certain fixtures is causing the lead to be in the water, as opposed to it being a problem with the water
source not being treated sufficiently. Benson said that the school division is working with the county’s Public Works department. He alluded to the problems in Flint, Michigan, where water-safety issues that began in 2014 were of a much higher magnitude. He again stressed the source of the problem, even when new board member Pamela Yeung questioned how the fixtures and pipes could be the issue and guessed the problem would be in the water. “It’s fixture or pipe-related as opposed to in the water,” Benson said. In August 2017, the school board spoke about water sampling that recently had occurred based on elevated lead levels in schools built prior to 1986. SAFETY
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