An Albemarle girl with a ton of charity

Nicole Muller, a 16-year-old junior at Western Albemarle High School, lives in a nice suburban home. But after hearing about local struggles to feed the hungry, she’s collected more than 550 pounds of food and is aiming for a ton by Saturday.
In August, Muller created a program called Neighbors-4-Neighbors, to collect donations for depleted local food banks.

“I know how lucky I am to live the life I’m living,” Muller said, adding that she started collecting food in her neighborhood but was surprised to see how much food poured in.
Ruth Jones, director of communications for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, said Muller’s drive is “amazing.”
“We think it’s incredible, to have a 16-year-old who is so passionate about the issue of hunger and is trying to make sure the community that’s in need is able to get nutritious meals,” Jones said. “It’s just something you don’t hear about very often.”

After seeing how much food she was able to collect, Muller set a goal of raising a ton by Saturday, USA Weekend Magazine’s Make A Difference Day.
Jones said 2,000 pounds of food is equivalent to about 1,500 meals, and the donations are greatly needed now, because the demand for food has increased during the recession.

“The face of hunger looks a lot different than it used to,” Jones said. “Many people who are asking for our help now … never thought they’d be in the position to have to ask for food assistance.”
“It could be your neighbor, could be a co-worker, your child’s best friend. Anyone that you know could be silently suffering from hunger. It’s not like you see in a Third World country where it’s obvious,” Jones said.
The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank is on track to distribute 1.3 million meals this year in the Charlottesville area, 300,000 more than last year.
“We’re serving more people than we’ve ever served in the history of our organization, and the need continues to grow,” Jones said. “We can’t do it without [Muller] or people like her.”

Muller said her long-term goal is to collect 10,000 pounds of food. To donate to Neighbors-4-Neighbors, e-mail Muller at .
For more information about the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, including drop-off locations, visit http://www.brafb.org.