LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 29 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Robinson Villalobos, operations manager for Loudoun Hunger Relief in Leesburg, organizes food that was donated by local grocery stores and restaurants. Donations from stores like Giant and Wegmans help food pantries to continue providing meals through the summer, even as donations from individuals and food drives dry up.
As Individual Food Donations Dip, Stores and Restaurants Step Up
F
or most kids, counting down the hours until the last day of the school year is about excitedly looking forward to lazy mornings and afternoons by the pool. But for thousands in Loudoun County, it marks the start of a three-month period where regular meals are hard to come by. More than 14,000 students in Loudoun’s school system come from families poor enough to qualify them for the federal free and reduced-price meal program. Many of those students rely on their school cafeterias for meals five days a week.
That means during the summer months, more young people—and their families—turn to local food pantries for help, and this surge in requests for food comes just as the pantries’ donations dip. Donations to Loudoun Hunger Relief, the county’s largest food pantry, dropped 37 percent between April and August last year. “Most people think of giving around Thanksgiving—that’s one meal on one day,” said Loudoun Hunger Relief Executive Director Jennifer Montgomery. “Hunger really never takes a holiday.” SUMMER HUNGER >> 46
ECRWSS Postal Customer June 30,
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May 25 – 31, 2017 ]
‘It’s a Hungry Time’
BY PATRICK SZABO
Rt. 15 solutions in view
ENERGY BOOST: New Leesburg Power Plant Goes Online BY NORMAN K. STYER After more than a decade of planning and construction the Stonewall Energy Facility south of Leesburg began operations last week. Owned by Panda Power Funds, the natural gas-fired 778-megawatt combined-cycle generating station can supply electricity for up to 778,000 homes. The construction wrapped up ahead of schedule and under budget. The project involved the installation of 1.4 million linear feet of electrical cable, 113,161 feet of pipe, and 890 tons of steel. More than 1.6 million man hours were put in by more than 700 workers. Initial tests show the plant is exceeding performance guarantees for both power output and efficiency, according to Dallas-based Panda Power Funds. The station was built by a turn-key consortium of Siemens Energy Inc. and Bechtel Corp. Siemens provided the power island package—including the natural gas turbines, steam turbine, generators, heat recovery steam generators, and instrumentation and controls systems. Bechtel was responsible for the engineering and procurement for the balance of the plant, and the construction and commissioning of the facility. “Panda Stonewall is one of the newest, cleanest and most efficient natural gas-fueled power plants in the United States,” stated Todd W. Carter, CEO and senior partner of Panda Power Funds. “Entering commercial operations represents the ultimate success of Panda’s, Bechtel’s and Siemens’ three-year collaboration on Stonewall.” The Stonewall plant was projected to contribute $7.1 billion to Virginia’s economy during the construction phase and the plant’s first 10 years of operation. The plant employs 27 full-time employees to oversee operations and maintenance of the facility. The Panda Stonewall plant was deENERGY BOOST >> 46
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