n LOUDOUN
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HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE PAGES 22-27
VOL. 8, NO. 1
We’ve got you covered. In the mail weekly. Online always at LoudounNow.com
NOVEMBER 24, 2022
Supervisors Consider Equity Policy BY RENSS GREENE
rgreene@loudounnow.com
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Loudoun Hunger Relief volunteer Sharon Gorick sorts and packs fresh vegetables for families waiting outside.
Giving Thanks
Food Nonprofits Help During an Extra Hungry Holiday Season BY RENSS GREENE
rgreene@loudounnow.com
With cold weather and Thanksgiving here, more families are giving thanks for the nonprofits, volunteers and donors working to ensure they don’t spend the holiday going hungry.
Loudoun’s hunger nonprofits have just finished Thanksgiving meal distributions, and they continue to have long lists of people asking for help. The annual surge in need during the cold weather and holiday season adds to a time of hardship that has not ended since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic more than
two years ago. And at the same time, the rising costs of living under high inflation have made it a little harder to make ends meet, and, for those more fortunate, to give a little extra.
Loudoun County supervisors are considering a resolution that would affirm equity as a fundamental value of the county government and lay out a series of projects and goals to put that value into action. In 2020, supervisors created the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the position of chief equity officer, but that position wasn’t hired until July 2021 amid a COVID-19 pandemic-related freeze on new spending. On Nov. 15, Chief Equity Officer Carl Rush presented the results of an extensive research project on the history of racial inequity in Loudoun County, accompanying the three-page resolution with commitments from both county supervisors and the government staff to view their decisions through an equity lens—starting with establishing a shared definition of the world. The resolution defines equity as “a fundamental value defined as the commitment to promote fairness and justice in the formation of priorities, policies, and programs.” “Often we talk about the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and we talk about
HUNGRY HOLIDAY continues on page 46
EQUITY continues on page 46
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