Fairfax County’s Stuff the Bus food drive to restock local food pantries will return to sites across the county on Saturday (March 14).
Eight grocery store parking lots will serve as collection points from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each site will benefit a different local food pantry. Residents are encouraged to donate non-perishable food or gift cards at the collection sites.
Alisa Brooks, the food access program manager at Fairfax County’s Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS), told FFXnow that the last Stuff the Bus event in September 2025 collected 12,239 pounds of food and $774 in gift cards. The goal of Saturday’s event is to collect 14,000 pounds of food.
With its Stuff the Bus initiative, the county has partnered with grocery stores, community organizations and volunteers to collect donations for local food pantries and food-insecure families since 2011.
More than a third of all households in the D.C. region, including 26% of Fairfax County homes, are food-insecure, meaning their access to food has been limited or uncertain at least once in the past year, the nonprofit Capital Area Food Bank found in its 2025 hunger report, released last September.
According to Neighborhood and Community Services data, more than 511,000 pounds of food and nearly $63,000 in monetary donations have been collected at Stuff the Bus sites since 2015. A large share of that — 148,000 and 96,000 pounds of food collected in 2020 and 2021, respectively — reflected higher food insecurity rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Locations for the upcoming food drive are:
- Annandale Giant (7137 Columbia Pike, Annandale) to benefit ACCA
- Chantilly Walmart (4368 Chantilly Shopping Center, Chantilly) to benefit Western Fairfax Christian Ministries
- Clifton Giant (5740 Union Mill Road, Centreville) to benefit Britepaths
- Herndon Giant (2425 Centreville Road, Herndon) to benefit Cornerstones
- Huntsman Giant (7501 Huntsman Blvd, Springfield) to benefit ECHO
- Lorton Lidl (9001 White Spruce Way, Lorton) to benefit Lorton Community Action Center
- McLean Giant (1454 Chain Bridge Road, McLean) to benefit SHARE of McLean
- Reston Giant (1450 North Point Village Center, Reston) to benefit LINK against Hunger
