For many at-risk and homeless high school students, food insecurity and the struggle to meet basic needs can hinder the ability to succeed in school. The new PA club WeAreVB is hoping to help and improve quality of life for students all throughout VBCPS.
The WeAreVB club is a part of the larger WeAreVB organization in Virginia Beach, a local non-profit founded in 2017 whose mission is to “improve the quality of life and outcomes for homeless and at-risk high school students in Virginia Beach.” The PA chapter, founded this year by senior Maura Graves, aligns closely with the organization’s larger mission, but focuses more specifically on helping students at PA, according to Co-President of the club, Olivia Morris.
“Having our own chapter here (at PA) really just helps us face (problems) more head on, especially in our school,” said Morris. She shared making a difference in the lives of PA students is important to her. Publicist freshman Addi Leo said the same thing, adding, “I like how [the club] will definitely benefit PA kids around me.”
Another part of the club Leo likes is how it stands out to her among other clubs at PA. “As a freshman coming in, I knew I wanted to start getting involved, and I really liked WeAreVB, it stood out to me.” Morris echoed Leo’s statement about the club’s uniqueness. “It’s not a wide, very populated movement, it’s specific to Virginia Beach,” she explained.
One of the main things that the club will do this year to benefit students, according to Graves, is collecting food donations, specifically non-perishables and canned foods. A big part of WeAreVB, explained Graves, is the food pantry that it operates locally in Virginia Beach. “There is a live food pantry where high school students in need or who are less fortunate or who are struggling at home can come in and kind of use as their own free lending grocery store,” she elaborated. Although the main thing the pantry collects is food items, they also accept donations of other necessities, such as feminine hygiene products.
While the club was just founded this year, Graves says she has been helping with the organization for a much longer time. “In seventh grade, as part of the basketball team at Plaza, we did a food drive, and we went and helped to sort food at the organization,” she shared. This sparked a passion for community service in Graves, and she says getting to help those at PA has made it even more special.
In addition to collaborating with WeAreVB, the club also hopes to collaborate with other schools from around Virginia Beach. “We are also, as of recently, in collaboration with Cox, FC, and Kelllam,” explained Graves, “and we are hoping to have a quarterly meeting with them soon, where we’ll go over big service projects.”
The first WeAreVB event the club is planning to hold will be a food drive where students can bring in non-perishable and canned food items. These will be collected by the club and donated to the larger organization, which will then be used to restock the WeAreVB pantry for high school students. Graves explained that interested students can find more information about the club on their Instagram (@pawearevb), and can look out for meeting dates on the morning announcements.
