Visits from Senator Sanders’ Office and Fairfax Health Department to the HNRC
Last Friday, October 2, 2026, Cornerstones was honored to host a special one-hour meeting with the Fairfax County Department of Health and Human Services, who brought two very special envoys from Senator Bernie Sanders’ office.
Senator Sanders serves on five Senate committees and holds leadership roles on several subcommittees, including Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee which oversees public health, education, labor standards, workplace safety, retirement security, biomedical research, and food and drug safety issues.
Senator Sanders’s Staffers Michaela Brown and Sarah Mueller’s goal was to learn more about disparities in life expectancy and health outcomes, how we are addressing them, our successes, and how challenges have evolved over the past year and over time.
Staffers Michaela Brown and Sarah Mueller from Senator Bernie Sanders’s office ask questions and listen to Cornerstones Opportunity Neighborhood Ambassadors speak to the health impacts of living in poverty.
Led by Chief Programs Officer, Maura Williams, the group heard from Cornerstones staff, case workers, Opportunity Neighborhood Ambassadors, and even a brave program participant who shared her harrowing story. The message was clear across the board: when a neighbor is in crisis, their health suffers and their life expectancy is adversely affected.
We appreciated support from Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, in whose district the HNRC sits. Supervisor Bierman made an important connection between the problems with cuts to SNAP benefits that we see here in our community here—and how these repercussions will continue to scale on national level.
Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, case workers, Opportunity Neighborhood Ambassadors, and Cornerstones staff all turned out to share stories of our community with the Health Department and Senator Sanders’s staffers.
Stories from around the room conveyed many critical messages but ultimately communicated the same fine point: our communities are in crisis, and people’s lives are on the line. It starts with housing and can snowball from there. Individuals and families are having to choose between paying their rent or buying groceries.
We’re seeing Seniors at risk like never before, filling beds at the Embry Rucker Community Shelter, and sleeping unhoused on the streets. It’s hard enough sleeping on the streets, let alone with health complications such as diabetes, cancer; their conditions exacerbated, and health quickly worsens.
Strong support systems like the supports offered through Cornerstones and other social service organizations help people weather a crisis before it becomes a lasting hardship.
When a community is healthy, children are better able to learn, adults have greater opportunities to work and care for their families, and older neighbors can remain connected and independent.
The silver lining is that while cuts to program like SNAP when hunger is at a five-year high, our community partners and donors have been stepping up and turning out for us in ways we’ve not seen since the pandemic in 2020, and for that we are deeply grateful.
As a member of the health department said, “Public health is a team sport.” And we are all in this together.
Senator Sanders Staffers Michaela Brown, Sarah Muella, Cornerstones’ Minnie Orozco, Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, and from Fairfax County Health Department Gloria Addo-Ayensu and Claudia Morcello.