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Richmond & Hampton Roads
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FeedMore and partners serve food, fellowship to help communities and people in need AIJIA LIAO AND HALEY ZHAO
CNS - At FeedMore headquarters on Rhoadmiller Street in Richmond, hundreds of volunteers from local schools, businesses and churches teamed up with FeedMore staff to make this winter a little bit warmer. People were busy packaging and preparing foods at that headquarter on a recent Monday afternoon. Through the efforts of FeedMore, Central Virginia’s core hunger-relief organization, the food distribution organization will serve more than 900 seniors and homebound neighbors this winter. “We want to ensure that families in need have something to eat during the holiday,” said Jessica Howe, the marketing and communications manager of FeedMore. “It also helps them to build a fellowship in the community, you know, they can even invite friends to share the meal. ” About 200 to 300 volunteers work at FeedMore every day to guarantee the quality of foods and to deliver meals to clients on time. About 80 percent of the workforce at the kitchen are volunteers. Staff and volunteers package food and follow specific dietary restrictions of each recipient to accommodate their nutritional requirements. The menu is adjusted each season. “Our volunteers will deliver right to the person’s door. It’s diet specific. We have 14 different diets, so if you have kidney disease, high blood pressure or something going on, we can help create a meal specific to you to help you get better,” Howe said.
Workers and volunteers prepare foods to be distributed at FeedMore. Olivia Adams volunteers with her children at Meals On Wheels program to deliver meals to clients at least once a month. Adams said that she and her husband considered the community service as a good opportunity to show their children how the community gets together trying to solve serious problems like hunger and poverty. “A lot of families do not have a place to stay during the holiday, we all know that. They even don’t have enough money to buy food.” said
Adams. In fact, Richmond has had the highest poverty rate in the state for years, with one in three children in the city living below the federal poverty level and one in four residents living below the poverty level. The U.S. Census Bureau also reported the food insecurity rate in Richmond to be around 21.3 percent. To combat this, FeedMore partnered with different organizations and community centers throughout the city, providing foods
and groceries at a much lower price than the market. Organizations are able to pay a membership fee to get groceries and fresh food or order specific meals from FeedMore. Peter Paul Development Center is one of the community centers that partners with FeedMore. People live in public housing community generally make less than $9,000 a year, which is far from sufficient, especially for households with seniors and children. The
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