Digital photograph courtesy of LINK. The LINK Food Pantry built in 1997 resides in Herndon. All direct home food deliveries originate from this facility.
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Lingg, Thayer, LINK Volunteers Honored in Fairfax, Loudoun Counties
Lingg, Thayer, LINK Volunteers Honored in Fairfax, Loudoun Counties
LINK is a tale of service excellence for two counties
For more information, call LINK President Betty Eidemiller at president@link-inc.org.
George Lingg received the Town of Herndon Distinguished Service Award on Sunday 27 April at the Herndon Community Center.
George Lingg is an exemplary Herndon citizen. For over twenty years, he has been active in LINK, the food pantry provided by a coalition of 14 churches in the Herndon and Sterling area. Over the past five years 44% of the LINK direct food deliveries were to families in Herndon, 40% in Sterling, 6% in Reston and 10% in Ashburn. LINK provides daily food delivery to the homes of people needing emergency food assistance, and LINK organizes distribution of holiday baskets at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
George has been the LINK church representative for Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church from 1987-2008. This position entails that he organizes food collection, which the church does one month a year and food deliveries once a year. In addition, Christ the Redeemer has been a host site for the annual Holiday Basket distribution programs. George has done a superb job of coordinating this effort from 2001-2007, which involves working with Scouting for Food in November (2001-2007), setting up space and volunteers to sort the food and then managing the “shopping” by the clients who come to the church to select their food allotment. Last year over 800 families totaling over 4,500 people received food and grocery gift certificates during the holiday events. George also makes arrangements at his church for storing and sorting of excess food when the LINK Food Pantry building is overstocked.
Several years ago, LINK received a federal community grant from Health and Human Services. George was instrumental in adding medical assistance for needy clients in the LINK grant application. When the grant was received, some funding was provided to the Herndon Free Clinic where prescriptions were provided at cost to low income households. The Herndon Free Clinic also used the funding to procure computer hardware and software that allowed purchase of medicine from a registry at a significantly reduced cost.
In the last two years, George was concerned that LINK was not addressing broader needs in the indigent community and developed a plan to provide new mattresses and bed frames at no charge to people in the LINK service area who had a verified need. He developed the plan, distributed the request for proposals, and negotiated the contract with a commercial vendor. The program is now up and running and along with providing beds, George has additionally inspired local folks and businesses to donate generously to LINK.
George is a kind and humble man and others easily agree to volunteer to assist him. He is skilled with motivating people. In addition, he has served as vice president and also as treasurer of LINK, as well as being a faithful participant in the monthly Board meetings.
Having spent hundreds of hours per year over 20 years, George Lingg is truly deserving of the Herndon Distinguished Service Award.
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Kenny Thayer received the Loudoun Volunteer Services 2008 Outstanding Adult Volunteer Award on Tuesday May 6 at the Board of Supervisors meeting in Leesburg.
To best describe the quality of work Kenny Thayer, a Sterling Resident, does in volunteer and life in general is found in the Bible. You will often hear Kenny refer to what Jesus said in Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in…Truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me.”
Whether he is volunteering for LINK or a worker for Loudoun Chapter of the Habitat for Humanity or teaching young kids Outreach at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, his approach is always good customer service by treating others with respect and dignity. He volunteers his spare time to try and make his community a better place to live in by assisting those who need a helping hand. When Kenny became an active member with LINK, he headed for the food pantry, maintained by fourteen churches in Sterling, Ashburn, and Herndon. He immediately assumed one of the toughest volunteer jobs, that of the Pantry Manager. This is a very large job, not only taking care of the food inventory coming in and out and coordinating all the people involved in food deliveries, but also in maintenance of the pantry facility itself. In 2007 he also served as Vice President of LINK. His dedication, ability to make spot-on decisions, and skills with people is always in evidence.
As the food pantry manager of LINK, Kenny has to ensure that a food coordinator is always available to get correct information from a client so that a food packer can get the delivery prepared and that someone from the volunteer church can make the delivery on time. With the incoming food donations being received from many sources the pantry can get cluttered to where the packers can’t reach the shelves. Kenny routinely goes to the pantry 3 to 4 times a week to make sure it stays organized. In 2007 Link made over 600 emergency food deliveries. During the year packers become ill, food deliverers missed part of their designated pickup, etc. and Kenny always made sure the family in need received the food even if he delivered it himself. On more than one occasion a family in need requested diapers and there were none available. Kenny would stop by the store on the way to the house to make sure the family received some diapers.
The biggest obstacle of the year occurred when a church designated to deliver for a whole month was unable fulfill the need and Kenny picked right up and found enough volunteer food drivers so that no one missed a delivery. In addition, he always figures out a way to train and provide orientation to new volunteers in what is a complex but wonderfully smooth running process.
As the food pantry manager, Kenny always makes sure that a food coordinator is available and able to get correct information from a client, adequate food is available to provide a well-balanced diet, that a packer can get the delivery prepared, and that someone from the volunteer church makes the delivery. One never knows how much and what kind of food will show up at the pantry for sorting and shelving. Regardless, the pantry does not get cluttered and is always organized so the packers can reach the shelves. Kenny is at the pantry almost every day and constantly in contact with all those that make meeting emergency food needs possible. In 2007, LINK made over 600 emergency food deliveries to families comprising 2,400 people.
Mark Gunderman Note: Established in 1972, LINK is a legacy “all volunteer” emergency support organizations in Northern Virginia and last summer celebrated its 35 year anniversary. LINK received the 2000 Congressional Victory against Hunger Award from the Congressional Hunger Center. The organization is comprised of 14 member churches consisting of Baptist, Brethren, and Catholic, Episcopal, Fellowship, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in the Herndon, Sterling and Ashburn area united in a common cause to provide food, grocery gift certificates and financial assistance to qualified people in need 52 weeks a year. Volunteers do all the work, and most goods are received from local donations. This past year LINK spent less than 7% ($3,500.00) of its budget on operating expenses. Similar to the Gospel story of the loaves and fish, LINK assisted people over 6,000 times last year with a $50,000.00 budget.
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