FOODBANK OF SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA


Fixing the Foodbank’s Leaky Roof H ELPS H UNGR Y P EOPLE


Peggy Sue Brown used to donate to local nonprofits with ease. Then doctors discovered a tumor on her spine, and the Virginia Beach resident’s life tumbled downward. Immense pain made it impossible to continue working as a special education assistant at a Norfolk school. Before being approved for disability payments, Brown and her son lived on $98 a month. She lost her home and her car and moved eight different times in four years. To keep from starving she relied on the food pantry at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Virginia Beach for everything from meat and noodles to holiday turkeys. St. Mark’s is one of 325 area organiza- tions that receive food from the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and give it to people in need for free.


Since 1981 more than $1 million in Foundation grants have helped renovate and equip the regional Foodbank, and start an Eastern Shore Foodbank branch.


Most weeks “all we ate was from the


Foodbank,” says Brown, 51. On a recent pickup day at St. Mark’s the only food left at home was rice, noodles and a few canned vegetables. That day Brown brought home four bags of free food, including pork, spaghetti sauce and pasta, and a cherry pie. A recent $100,000 grant from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation allowed the Foodbank to fix its 50-year-old leaky roof so it can ensure that food is safe. Each month about 1 million pounds of food helps hun- gry people right here in Hampton Roads. Many have to “choose between medicine and food. Families can’t make ends meet,” says Joanne Batson, chief executive officer at the Foodbank. “We are the safety net for them.”


more info —


Peggy Sue Brown is thankful for Foodbank groceries.


The struggling economy meant church pantries like


St. Mark’s had growing numbers of hungry people. To cope, the church now allows the same clients to pick up food only twice a month rather than weekly. Church volunteers make sure they meet with clients to share information on free healthcare, housing assistance and other ways to deal with a multitude of problems that go along with being poor.


Since 1981 the Hampton Roads Community > foodbankonline.org


Foundation has awarded the Foodbank more than $1 million in grants to buy refrigerated trucks, renovate its building, “transport food and keep this organization going,” says Batson. Without the improvements, the organization would be less efficient and provide fewer meals to the community. Most of the Foundation’s grants to the Foodbank come from permanent funds created by generous donors who left little or no restrictions on how their grants benefit our region. Today, Peggy Sue Brown is doing


better. She is now receiving disability payments and lives with her son in a mobile home. “The Foodbank kept us alive,” says Brown. “They literally saved us.”


Watch video on your smartphone.


St. Mark’s volunteers pack bags for hungry people visiting the church food pantry. 11


IMPACT


Hampton Roads Community Foundation •


hamptonr oadscf.or g Photos by Glen McClure


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