December 1, 2025
Cooking Up Hope: How Loudoun County Students and Staff Came Together to Serve Families Experiencing Homelessness
When Loudoun County Public Schools’ McKinney-Vento team began planning how to support students and families experiencing homelessness during Thanksgiving this year, the timeline was tight. However, they quickly laid a path forward. What emerged was Cooking Up Hope, a student-led, community-powered initiative that delivered warm Thanksgiving meals to families living in hotels across Loudoun and neighboring counties.
In just a few short weeks, Loudoun County educators, students, staff, and partners transformed an ambitious idea into a meaningful act of care, one that nourished not only families, but also the broader school community.
From an Idea to a Community Effort
The idea to provide Thanksgiving meals began last year when Loudoun’s McKinney-Vento team partnered with a local organization to purchase and deliver prepared meals to families living in hotels. While successful, that partnership was not an option this year.
“We knew we wanted to do something,” said Holly Angle, McKinney-Vento Specialist for Loudoun County Public Schools. She emphasized the importance of building relationships and connections with these families around meals, explaining, “That’s how you show up for one another, and that’s how it shows community.”
With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, Holly found an unexpected opportunity through a conversation at a school division meeting. Lightridge High School’s Principal Dr. Hitchman and Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teachers Maria Gore and Kelsey Zaremski saw an opportunity for students to take the lead.
“They didn’t just say yes,” Holly explained. “They ran with it.”
Students Lead the Way
Lightridge High School’s FACS students became the heart of Cooking Up Hope. Using their industrial teaching kitchen, students planned every aspect of the initiative, from menu design and budgeting to food preparation, packaging, and project management. The extensive contribution of these students included: a full Thanksgiving menu; a detailed budget and spreadsheet with quantities and notes for future years; a custom Cooking Up Hope logo featuring their school mascot; and a production schedule aligned with their coursework.
Students were told that they could use leftover funds on items they need for their kitchen. Instead, the FACS students chose to use these funds to purchase and assemble snack packs for families, making sure that everyone received something beyond the Thanksgiving meal.
Rallying Support Across the Division
To fund groceries, Holly’s team launched a short, internal fundraiser, open only to LCPS staff, which raised nearly $1,500 in just a week and a half. Community partners contributed additional support, including donated turkeys, grocery items, and reusable bags.
On delivery day, collaboration expanded even further with Transition (CAST) program students helping to unload, sort, and organize meals at the administration building, gaining hands-on workplace experience. School staff, principals, and administrators volunteered to deliver meals. Further, School Nutrition Services provided insulated transport bags to ensure food safety.
In total, 72 individual meals were delivered to 18 families living in hotels across Loudoun, Reston, and Herndon, a tremendous project completed in under two hours thanks to careful coordination and teamwork.
More Than a Meal
For families, the response was immediate and heartfelt. “Families were incredibly thankful,” Holly shared. “Some hugged the volunteers. Some wanted them to stay and eat with them. And students loved seeing their principals and other school staff show up after hours.”
For volunteers, the experience offered something deeper. “Seeing it up close was eye-opening,” Holly said. “One principal said, ‘Their entire world is in this one small hotel room.’ That kind of perspective stays with you.”
In several cases, the impact continued beyond the day itself. One volunteer team was inspired to donate gift cards to a family recovering from a house fire. Another division department launched a chili cook-off fundraiser to continue supporting Loudoun’s McKinney-Vento program, an effort directly inspired by Cooking Up Hope.
Looking Ahead
What began as a last-minute solution has now become a model for the future. Next year, Holly hopes to expand Cooking Up Hope to one high school in each of the division’s six regions, allowing students to support families within their own communities while increasing awareness and shared responsibility across the county.
“There’s so much potential here,” Holly said. “Not just with culinary arts, but with media classes, service clubs, and student organizations—students telling the stories from their own lens.”
Beyond expansion, Cooking Up Hope represents a shift in how Loudoun’s McKinney-Vento program is seen. “We want people to understand that this work isn’t just about paperwork or eligibility,” Holly explained. “It’s about relationships, dignity, and showing up for families in real, tangible ways.”
A Recipe Worth Repeating
Cooking Up Hope demonstrated what is possible when students are empowered, educators collaborate, and communities come together with purpose. In just a few weeks, Loudoun County created something lasting, proving that even under tight timelines and restricted budgets, creativity, compassion, and service can flourish.