Virginia Peninsula Foodbank

Our child nutrition and workforce development programs both represent signature initiatives that serve our community effectively. Through our food for kids backpack program, the foodbank provides portable bags of nutritious, child-friendly food items to 1,500 children every friday during the school year at more than 30 elementary school and pre-k program sites. Program-eligible sites are either classified as title i schools (receiving funding for serving low-income populations) or have more than 50% of their student population qualifying for free and reduced-price federal school meal programs. Through the backpack program, children are properly nourished during the weekends when school meal programs are unavailable to them and they may be at risk for food insecurity. By receiving proper nourishment when they are away from school, these children can return to the classroom on mondays engaged and ready to learn. During the 2023-24 fiscal year, we distributed more than 50,000 portable food bags containing 205,350 meals through this program.our kids cafe program provides evening meals to more than 400 children every weekday at structured after-school program sites. The summer food service program (sfsp) offers breakfast and lunch meals to more than 800 children during the summer months at community sites, summer camps, and low-income housing units. The school produce market program distributes first-quality fruits and vegetables to families at local public schools every month during the school year.finally, our culinary training program offers low-income adults looking to make a positive change in their lives the opportunity to attend a rigorous, tuition-free, 12-week training curriculum provided every weekday three times annually with the foodbank's commercial kitchen as a classroom. Under the leadership of an executive chef and production chef, these adult students receive the kitchen management, food safety, and food preparation skills necessary to obtain the meaningful and stable full-time employment that will empower them to achieve self-sufficiency in their lives. Each afternoon, these students receive life skills training from foodbank staff and community leaders centered on topics, such as leadership, conflict resolution, financial management and budgeting, customer service, hospitality, interviewing, and communication. As part of their daily training curriculum, our students prepare the meals for the children participating in our kids cafe and summer food service programs.

Other programs benefiting peninsula residents:the mobile food pantry program brings first-quality produce, grocery items, usda tefap commodities, and shelf-stable goods directly to our neighbors at more than 25 community sites, including churches, schools, community centers, and low-income senior housing complexes. During the past fiscal year (2023-2024), the foodbank distributed more than 3.2 million pounds of food through mobile food pantry distributions. In addition, the neighbor to neighbor program enables the foodbank and designated partner agencies to obtain prepared and perishable food items that would otherwise be discarded by local grocery businesses and other food retailers in order to "rescue" this food for those in need. More than 2.9 million pounds of food was distributed through the neighbor to neighbor program in fy2024. Our foodbank also forms partnerships with local hospitals and healthcare organizations to offer nutritious food and nutrition education to help those experiencing food insecurity manage and prevent their chronic health conditions.our community volunteers are essential to the success of our programs. A total of more than 25,255 volunteer hours were contributed from individuals and groups throughout our service area, saving over $851,958 in salaries (based on a value of $33.38/hour in virginia as determined by the independent sector) in support of the foodbank and its hunger relief programs in fy2024.