Food Drive Marks 15 Years of Giving Back

Record amount of food is collected to help neighbors experiencing food insecurity.

CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT’S 15th annual Food for Thought campaign to fight hunger was the most successful to date, thanks to the overwhelming generosity of students, faculty and Smithfield Foods.

The drive collected 70 thousand pounds of food for the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank, including a truckload — 30 thousand pounds! — of protein donated by Smithfield Foods. Smithfield Foods is a global company with local roots, headquartered just across the James River in Smithfield, Virginia.

“Smithfield Foods has donated hundreds of millions of servings of protein to food banks in all 50 states across the country. But this donation is even more special because it’s right here in our own backyard,” said Jonathan Toms, ’16, Smithfield’s Senior Community Development Manager. “Every single person has a role to play in the fight against hunger. We are so proud to be able to join the Christopher Newport community to support the Peninsula Foodbank with this donation of 120 thousand servings of protein.”

Each year, various groups on campus engage in some friendly competition to see who can bring in the most food for the Weight of Hunger food challenge. This year’s winner was the Lifelong Learning Society (LLS), which collected over 20 thousand pounds of food. The LLS is a membership organization dedicated to people of retirement age who seek opportunities for learning in an environment of sharing and fellowship.

The success of this annual drive reflects Christopher Newport’s emphasis on civic engagement and service.

“Over the last 14 years, Christopher Newport has donated 340,000 pounds to the Foodbank, the equivalent of 283,000 meals,” said Vanessa Buehlman, Director of the Center for Community Engagement.

“Not only is this event a chance to come together as a community and help our neighbors in need, but it also opens up really important conversations about how to address food insecurity, both in the short term as well as its root causes.”

The latest data shows 1 in 8 Virginians struggle with food insecurity. The food collected from this year’s drive will provide more than 57 thousand meals to neighbors in need.

Grant Awarded to Increase Campus Mental Health Services

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), in consultation with the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF), has awarded a grant to Christopher Newport to expand mental health care services for students.

The Higher Education Mental Health Workforce Pilot grant will underwrite the salary and benefits of two onsite Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) candidates for two years to work alongside our counseling staff. Christopher Newport will supplement the grant by hiring a third counseling candidate. The University will train and supervise the LCSW/LPC candidates to work at our on-campus mental health care facilities until they are licensed. These additional hires mean there will now be 16 mental health providers available on campus to assist students.

This unique pilot program will serve the dual purpose of expanding mental health services for students, while simultaneously increasing the mental health workforce pipeline by offering supervised clinical hours for candidates seeking to become a LCSW or LPC.

Christopher Newport is the only Tidewater-area school to be awarded this grant.

The grant is the result of the General Assembly responding to the critical need for mental health care for students attending Virginia’s institutions of higher education. In 2022, legislators appropriated $500,000 annually for the next two years to support this mental health workforce pilot, which will be conducted at six selected public fouryear institutions.