Virginia charity gives gifts and holiday meals to 800 kids and parents

When she was a teenager, Elizabeth Ford, of Purcellville, Virginia, made a promise to herself: never be homeless and hungry again.

Her mother suffered from mental health issues and struggled to hold a steady job, leaving Ford to basically fend for herself. She was kicked out of middle and high school for fighting and using drugs. She spent her days asking customers outside a 7-Eleven convenience store for quarters so she could scrape up enough to buy a hot dog, pizza and nachos. Nights, she couch-surfed at friends’ houses.

Fast forward: Ford, 46, got a bachelor’s degree, launched a successful career in government contracting and eight years ago founded a nonprofit called BetterALife that provides children and their families in Loudoun and Fairfax counties with a variety of services. Those include helping students with homework at a weekly club, supplying lunches and meals, teaching children how to cook and giving gifts at the holidays.

At their annual event called “A Child’s Wish,” her group gave away gifts last weekend to 800 children and their parents, along with groceries for a holiday meal. Now in its fourth year, her holiday program lets children whom she works with during the year make a gift request, write it on the back of a wooden ornament and hang it on a Christmas tree at her center in Purcellville. Donors then come and pick one or several ornaments to fulfill a wish.

“It’s a chance for a child to have that magical moment to have something that’s new and just for them,” Ford said of her giveaway event. “It’s an opportunity they rarely get.”

She runs BetterALife with help from her husband Carnadi Ford, an engineer for Boeing, their five children and about 50 volunteers. With an annual budget of about $225,000 that comes from mostly private donations and grants, she’s able to serve about 6,000 children and their families a year, she said.

For Ford, helping others has been a personal mission. She described herself as a “child of hunger” and remembers being 7 years old the first time she realized “things were different.”

Ford’s parents split up when she was 7 years old and divorced two years later. Her older sister went to live with her father in Sterling, while she stayed with her mother.

They moved to various apartments after her mother lost their townhouse. When Ford was 17 her mom moved to Russia with a new husband, according to Ford’s father Jim Pycior. He said Ford stayed in the D.C. area and lived with a friend, and later, a boyfriend.

“I’ve always worked to make my way out of things,” Ford said. “I wanted to do the opposite of everything my mother did. She couldn’t hold a job, so I wanted a job. She didn’t cook, so I wanted to learn to cook.”

As a young teenager, Ford waitressed at various local restaurants. At 19, she became homeless and stayed in hotels when she could afford it.

“I’d see the women come in and they’d be in suits,” Ford said. “Their hair was clean and they were pretty and I’d say to myself, ‘I have to get that life.’”

Ford said she didn’t reach out to her father when she was a teen to ask for help.

“I blamed him for my mother’s sickness and for leaving us,” Ford said. “That’s why I cut him off. I could have reached him, but I was angry and bitter.”

She got her GED at 17 and at 21, she was pregnant with her first child and began to reconnect with her father. Ford received a bachelor’s degree online in information technology while juggling a full-time day job for a federal contractor. Ford’s mother died about four years ago of COVID, Ford said, and she now talks to her father regularly.

Two years ago, Ford left her career to run her nonprofit full time. She does not take a salary from BetterALife, according to her most recent tax filing, and said she would feel guilty if she did.

“I don’t want to take from the children,” Ford said. “It’s such a small organization with such a small income.”

Her organization offers services to people with no questions asked about their income level. Ford said she does that because when she was a single mom, she made just $5 over the limit to qualify for government help. “I remember what that is like,” Ford said, “and I refuse to tell someone if they make just a few dollars over a limit that they can’t get help.”

“If they come to me,” she said, “I’m going to help them.”

Ford said she often shares her own story of childhood hunger and struggles with the parents and children she serves because she said she thinks it’s “good for them to know what I’ve been through.”

“They have someone who can relate,” she said. “I get it that they think they’re alone and that it’s just them. It’s not. I tell them my story.

“They can make it through,” she said, “and they can be successful and have opportunities ahead.”

Ana Rodriguez, who lives in Purcellville, said Ford has helped her two children at BetterALife’s homework club. Last weekend, her children received holiday gifts, and she got groceries for a holiday meal.

“I can’t help my kids with their homework, because my English isn’t so good,” Rodriguez said. “Mrs. Elizabeth has worked with them and helped and given us food with no need to pay.

“She’s a person with a big, generous heart who’s always willing to help with whatever you need.”

Most of Ford’s clients find her through word of mouth or the Loudoun and Fairfax County school system and social service agencies. Her group provides a range of services for children from infants to 18 and their families.

Ford’s nonprofit also passes out free meals on weekends in disadvantaged neighborhoods, pays off students’ school lunch debts, gives away groceries at their food pantry and feeds children a hot meal at a weekly homework club. Volunteers also mentor and help high school students in applying to college and finding grants and scholarships to offset costs.

Ashley Pena Canas, 17, said she met Ford when she was at home babysitting 12 of her young family members and she was giving away lunches door-to-door in her neighborhood. Ford got to know Pena Canas and helped her apply to George Mason University, which she plans to attend in the fall of 2025. Pena Canas also became a volunteer with the group.

“I thought nobody cared about me and I saw her and how she cared about other people,” Pena Canas said. “I thought, ‘I want to do that.’

“Growing up in poverty and not having much, I know what it’s like to go to places and be in need,” she said. “People can be very judgmental and not want to give you stuff, but Elizabeth never said any of that to me. If she can say yes to people, she does.”