Faith in Action report regarding research of addressing hunger in our area:
The Blue Ridge Food Bank in Verona serves 28 counties (including Rockingham County) and 8 cities (including Harrisonburg) on either side of the Blue Ridge Mountains through distribution centers in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Winchester in addition to their headquarters in Verona, Va. (11 of the 69 pantries and shelters operate in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.) They are members of Feeding America, a national organization supporting more than 200 food banks across the country and the largest domestic hunger relief agency in the U.S. BRFB are also members of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, an association of the 7 food banks in Virginia.
They obtain the food in three key ways – from donations, from the federal government, and through purchasing the food. Purchasing food is necessary because donations of canned food and dry goods only comprise 3% of the total supply. Financial support from donors means they can buy food that is not available through donation, and also means they can provide consistent menus and nutrition. They purchase food to be given to Family BackPack and Summer Feeding programs, which use predetermined menus. The USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a Federal program that distributes federally supplied commodities such as canned and frozen food to eligible households. Eligibility in this program is based on recipient income; distribution is limited to one time per month per family.
The Food Bank secures the donations (monetary and tangible) – moves the food – safely stores and distributes the food via partner food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters and the mobile food pantries and other Food Bank programs.
Donations – They capture donations of food from large corporations – national supermarket chains and large food manufacturers. Locally they are supported by manufacturers, grocery stores, farmers, and community food drives. The breakdown is as follows: Food Drives – 3%
Donations from
Growers/Traders – 15%
Retail Donations – 38%
Manufacturer Donations – 10%
USDA Contributions – 24%
Purchased Food 8% Misc. – 2%
96% of their income goes to program services.
Volunteers put in 30,281 total hours for fiscal year July 2018 through June 2019 at the Food Bank. 90,375 people were served through partner agencies; 205 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters; 4,184 people served monthly through mobile distribution. 2,853 people were served through senior nutrition programs; 7,300 were served monthly through child nutrition programs.
Even though the Food Bank cannot directly serve precooked food, the partner agencies can take precooked food to serve. They also work with farmers to ensure that fresh food is not left in the fields and can be utilized. The food bank has a less than 1% food disposal record with 25% of the distribution being fresh produce.
Statistics online from Feeding America 2013 to 2017: (Surrounding counties)
County population Food insecurity rate est. #of food insecure individuals
Albemarle 2013 - 100,636 10.1% 10,180
2017 - 105,105 9.1% 9,520
Augusta 2013 – 73,726 9.1% 6,730
2017 - 74,390 7.7% 5,750
Page 2013 - 23,975 13.5% 3,230
2017 - 23,694 11.7% 2,780
Rockingham 2013 – 76,885 8.9% 6,860
2017 - 78,653 7.8% 6,160
According to the Community Resource Center Resource Guide, which is handed out by the Social Services Dept. in Harrisonburg, there are 17 food pantries in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Most, but not all of them, belong to the Blue Ridge Food Bank and receive USDA food from them. They all accept food donations from local merchants and individuals and accept monetary funds to purchase food for their pantries. All are supported with volunteer help from their congregations.
According to the Resource Guide there is a place in Harrisonburg every day of the week to get a hot meal. Our Community Place serves lunch M, W; lunch for volunteers who work there on Tuesday; dinner on Thursday; and Friday lunch is for paying customers. On Sundays they serve a hot meal for brunch after Early Church.
Otterbein United Methodist Church is listed as serving dinner on Monday evenings.
First Presbyterian Church serves an evening meal on Tuesdays.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church serves an evening meal on Wednesdays and has Friendship House every Thursday at 11 a.m.
Asbury United Methodist Church serves a meal at 11:30 a.m. on the Last Friday of the month.
Harrisonburg Baptist Church serves a hot meal and a bag of food to take home 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
The First Church of the Nazarene also serves a meal on Monday night. (Not sure if every Monday or just the first one of each month.)
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is the subsidized federal program (formerly known as food stamps) and people apply at the Social Services Dept.
WIC – is the women, infants and children program run by the state of Virginia Health Dept. There are income criteria and information required on applications for these governmental services.
The Backpack program in the schools will require more research. To find out about each of the schools in the city and the county need to be contacted individually. The Guidance Counselors of each school coordinate the programs. For the city, I gleaned the following information from
The city school division has 71% of its’ students on free and reduced meals. Four (4) of the schools have a Community Eligibility Provision where all students are served breakfast and lunch and it’s automatically free for all – everyone eats without any restrictions. There is a complex formula to qualify the school.
The county school division has 40% of its students on free and reduced meals. As with the city, families have to fill out the application. There is a lot of paperwork for the divisions regarding the federally subsidized program.
Both divisions emphasized that no student is denied food. If they are in line, they get fed both breakfast and lunch. At the elementary and middle school level, all students are required to get the food if they are seen sitting without any food. At the high school level it is optional. We need to call the 23 schools individually about the BackPack programs. Central office has no information on them.
What can we do?
-Encourage all churches to participate in backpack programs already in place
-have events where we give away bags of food (such as Christmas or Thanksgiving)
-possibly participate with summer feeding programs
The Blue Ridge Food Bank in Verona serves 28 counties (including Rockingham County) and 8 cities (including Harrisonburg) on either side of the Blue Ridge Mountains through distribution centers in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Winchester in addition to their headquarters in Verona, Va. (11 of the 69 pantries and shelters operate in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.) They are members of Feeding America, a national organization supporting more than 200 food banks across the country and the largest domestic hunger relief agency in the U.S. BRFB are also members of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, an association of the 7 food banks in Virginia.
They obtain the food in three key ways – from donations, from the federal government, and through purchasing the food. Purchasing food is necessary because donations of canned food and dry goods only comprise 3% of the total supply. Financial support from donors means they can buy food that is not available through donation, and also means they can provide consistent menus and nutrition. They purchase food to be given to Family BackPack and Summer Feeding programs, which use predetermined menus. The USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a Federal program that distributes federally supplied commodities such as canned and frozen food to eligible households. Eligibility in this program is based on recipient income; distribution is limited to one time per month per family.
The Food Bank secures the donations (monetary and tangible) – moves the food – safely stores and distributes the food via partner food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters and the mobile food pantries and other Food Bank programs.
Donations – They capture donations of food from large corporations – national supermarket chains and large food manufacturers. Locally they are supported by manufacturers, grocery stores, farmers, and community food drives. The breakdown is as follows: Food Drives – 3%
Donations from
Growers/Traders – 15%
Retail Donations – 38%
Manufacturer Donations – 10%
USDA Contributions – 24%
Purchased Food 8% Misc. – 2%
96% of their income goes to program services.
Volunteers put in 30,281 total hours for fiscal year July 2018 through June 2019 at the Food Bank. 90,375 people were served through partner agencies; 205 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters; 4,184 people served monthly through mobile distribution. 2,853 people were served through senior nutrition programs; 7,300 were served monthly through child nutrition programs.
Even though the Food Bank cannot directly serve precooked food, the partner agencies can take precooked food to serve. They also work with farmers to ensure that fresh food is not left in the fields and can be utilized. The food bank has a less than 1% food disposal record with 25% of the distribution being fresh produce.
Statistics online from Feeding America 2013 to 2017: (Surrounding counties)
County population Food insecurity rate est. #of food insecure individuals
Albemarle 2013 - 100,636 10.1% 10,180
2017 - 105,105 9.1% 9,520
Augusta 2013 – 73,726 9.1% 6,730
2017 - 74,390 7.7% 5,750
Page 2013 - 23,975 13.5% 3,230
2017 - 23,694 11.7% 2,780
Rockingham 2013 – 76,885 8.9% 6,860
2017 - 78,653 7.8% 6,160
According to the Community Resource Center Resource Guide, which is handed out by the Social Services Dept. in Harrisonburg, there are 17 food pantries in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Most, but not all of them, belong to the Blue Ridge Food Bank and receive USDA food from them. They all accept food donations from local merchants and individuals and accept monetary funds to purchase food for their pantries. All are supported with volunteer help from their congregations.
According to the Resource Guide there is a place in Harrisonburg every day of the week to get a hot meal. Our Community Place serves lunch M, W; lunch for volunteers who work there on Tuesday; dinner on Thursday; and Friday lunch is for paying customers. On Sundays they serve a hot meal for brunch after Early Church.
Otterbein United Methodist Church is listed as serving dinner on Monday evenings.
First Presbyterian Church serves an evening meal on Tuesdays.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church serves an evening meal on Wednesdays and has Friendship House every Thursday at 11 a.m.
Asbury United Methodist Church serves a meal at 11:30 a.m. on the Last Friday of the month.
Harrisonburg Baptist Church serves a hot meal and a bag of food to take home 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
The First Church of the Nazarene also serves a meal on Monday night. (Not sure if every Monday or just the first one of each month.)
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is the subsidized federal program (formerly known as food stamps) and people apply at the Social Services Dept.
WIC – is the women, infants and children program run by the state of Virginia Health Dept. There are income criteria and information required on applications for these governmental services.
The Backpack program in the schools will require more research. To find out about each of the schools in the city and the county need to be contacted individually. The Guidance Counselors of each school coordinate the programs. For the city, I gleaned the following information from
- No BackPack programs at the middle schools or the high school.
- Spotswood Elementary – has a program with support from RISE and Valley Church.
- They expect to serve about 60 families this year.
- Blue Stone Elementary – Because it’s a new school they are serving @10 students in the
- Smithland Elementary – Anonymous church support – more students included as the year
- Waterman Elementary – no response
- Keister Elementary – no response
The city school division has 71% of its’ students on free and reduced meals. Four (4) of the schools have a Community Eligibility Provision where all students are served breakfast and lunch and it’s automatically free for all – everyone eats without any restrictions. There is a complex formula to qualify the school.
The county school division has 40% of its students on free and reduced meals. As with the city, families have to fill out the application. There is a lot of paperwork for the divisions regarding the federally subsidized program.
Both divisions emphasized that no student is denied food. If they are in line, they get fed both breakfast and lunch. At the elementary and middle school level, all students are required to get the food if they are seen sitting without any food. At the high school level it is optional. We need to call the 23 schools individually about the BackPack programs. Central office has no information on them.
What can we do?
-Encourage all churches to participate in backpack programs already in place
-have events where we give away bags of food (such as Christmas or Thanksgiving)
-possibly participate with summer feeding programs