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(A gallery of photos follows the story below. Photos were submitted by Katlyn Javins.)

Eleven-year-old Landon Adkins, of Capron, set aside what could have been a vacation snow day during the week of Feb. 16-22 and instead used it to deliver food to rural and underserved town residents who had limited mobility due to the impact of Winter Storm Kingston.

A snowfall analysis from the National Weather Service’s Wakefield office noted that Southampton County received anywhere from four to eight inches of snow due to the storm, prompting schools to close their campuses until safer settings returned.

“So I was just off the whole day, and instead of sitting, playing video games, I wanted to give out to people because I knew that they couldn’t go out and get it themselves,” Landon said. “So I just really wanted to give the food to make them happy and also so that they can eat.”

Landon volunteers for Family 4 Eternity, a Capron-based nonprofit organization that is a partner agency with Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore. 

Landon’s mother, Katlyn Javins, is the chief financial officer of Family 4 Eternity, and she is engaged to Charles Bazdanes, who founded the organization in 2024.

Javins noted that Family 4 Eternity operates out of Pine Level Baptist Church, an underserved rural African American congregation in Capron. 

“The organization and the congregation facilitate and distribute to the community,” she said.

She explained that Family 4 Eternity has distributed more than 200,000 pounds of food to more than 25,000 people across eight counties.

She noted that on a monthly basis, the organization feeds more than 600 families, serving 5,000 people and distributing more than 50,000 pounds of food.

A dedicated team at the nonprofit works 22 days a month to make the above numbers a reality.

But Winter Storm Kingston interrupted Family 4 Eternity’s normal operations.

“That week, distribution was canceled because of all the snow that Capron had,” Javins said.

However, she noted that Landon was interested in helping Bazdanes coordinate an alternate distribution system to limit the service interruption.

“(Landon) woke up with no school and wanted to spend his day serving senior citizens with no access to food in challenging temperatures,” Javins said.

She stated that Landon and Bazdanes went to Pine Level Baptist and filled boxes with approximately 20 food items each, including eggs, bread, fruit and various pantry items from the Foodbank.

They loaded these boxes onto a wagon that they pushed amid frigid temperatures, and they delivered the food to 15 different underserved families in Capron, including those with senior citizens.

“The amount of gratitude and blessing of how amazed they were by the acts of kindness I think just blew everyone away,” Javins said.

She asked Landon if delivering the food brought smiles to the faces of the residents, and he immediately confirmed, “Yeah, it did, it really did.”

Landon also worked to make outdoor steps and walkways safer for the church and for the rural residents he and Bazdanes were serving.

“So not only did he hand out the food, but he was also shoveling snow,” Javins said.

And Landon undertook all of this work despite not feeling his best.

“He actually was feeling under the weather most of the week,” Javins said. “To me, as a mom, I think not feeling well and still waking up to choose to just help people was amazing.”