Elaine Duffy Receives the 2026 H. Donald Campbell Award
Every week, more than 900 families in South Arlington find food on their tables because of the pantry at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church. Behind much of that work is Elaine Duffy, a full-time volunteer who has quietly kept the shelves stocked and the deliveries moving since the start of the pandemic.
This year, Saint Peter’s is honored to name Mrs. Duffy the recipient of the 2026 H. Donald Campbell Award for Service and Generosity. The award comes with a $15,000 grant from Saint Peter’s, funded by the Campbell Family Foundation of Richmond. Mrs. Duffy has chosen to give the full grant to the Our Lady Queen of Peace Food Pantry and its related feeding programs.
Mrs. Duffy retired from the International Association of Firefighters 16 years ago and soon became a regular presence in her parish’s social justice and outreach programs. When COVID-19 arrived, the Our Lady Queen of Peace pantry stayed open. The number of families seeking help grew from fewer than 230 a week to more than 750.
During those years, Mrs. Duffy and fellow parishioners also answered a call from the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D.C., to provide weekly meals. Since 2021, she has overseen the pantry’s bulk food orders and deliveries.
Today she coordinates the volunteers who transport purchased and donated food, manages deliveries to the pantry and to the homes of families in need, and has led the parish’s ongoing donor partnerships with Lidl and Wegmans. Because she is on call for pickups from those donors, she often works seven days a week.
“Elaine is one of those wonderful people who sees something that needs to be done and does it,” said Sally Diaz-Wells, Social Justice and Outreach Minister at Our Lady Queen of Peace. She added that Mrs. Duffy embodies the parish’s mission as expressed in Matthew 25: “I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.”
Hunger in our own county has grown sharply. Arlington’s Food Security Strategic Plan (2026–2030) reports that the number of people experiencing food insecurity has nearly doubled since 2020. The number of households seeking food each week has more than doubled over the same period, reaching an average of 4,000 households weekly in fiscal year 2026.
With that need in mind, the people of Saint Peter’s voted to focus the Campbell Award on food security and invited nominations of volunteers working on the front lines of the region’s food crisis. A lay committee at Saint Peter’s reviewed nominees from 12 Washington-area nonprofit organizations before selecting Mrs. Duffy.
“Mrs. Duffy’s commitment to her church and the South Arlington community models the record of service and generosity of Don Campbell, who we also honor through this award,” said Tom Brannan, chair of Saint Peter’s Award Advisory Committee.
Mrs. Duffy will be honored at a luncheon hosted by Saint Peter’s in November. There, the $15,000 check will be presented to Father Timothy Hickey, C.S.Sp., pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace, to support the parish’s weekly food pantry and its other feeding programs.
The award carries the name of H. Donald Campbell, a founding member of Saint Peter’s who served for many years as our Treasurer and died in 2024. Don was the son of Edmund and Elizabeth Campbell, also founding members of Saint Peter’s, who gave their lives to the community, to education, and to civil rights.
Please join us in giving thanks for Elaine Duffy and for all the volunteers across our region who feed their neighbors week after week. Her faithfulness is a reminder that serving those in need is work we share across parish lines.
Since its founding in 1961, Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church has sought to be a strong Christian witness to the world, guided by a vision to be a community of people called together in Christ, transformed by God’s grace, and sent out to serve. Saint Peter’s is located at 4250 North Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia.
Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church was founded as a Black Catholic parish in May 1945. Today it is a community of more than 2,000 families representing many races, cultures, and nationalities, committed to bringing God’s peace and justice to its neighborhood, community, nation, and world.
