10 • Progress 2022
Stronger Together
Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore
Addressing hunger and its root causes
By Titus Mohler The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore is doing important work in the community to end hunger, and there are a variety of ways people can become part of this effort. Foodbank Chief Impact Officer Emma Inman said the Foodbank leads the effort to eliminate hunger in the community primarily through two avenues — feeding people who are hungry today and addressing the root causes of hunger to help people become self-sufficient. Inman noted that feeding people who are hungry today involves “your traditional food banking that you think of where we work with agency partners like soup kitchens, food pantries. We partner with a lot of faith-based organizations, as an example. We’re the warehouse that gets food to those agencies. They distribute that food into the community.” She said the Foodbank also has some direct distribution programs, but it is primarily through its network agency partners that it feeds people who are in need of healthy, nutritious meals today. Inman described a new initiative aimed at getting food into communities where it is needed most — the Foodbank’s 757 Mobile Markets. A mobile market is a 40-foot vehicle that will hold 20,000 pounds of food.
SUBMITTED | FOODBANK OF SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA AND THE EASTERN SHORE The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore works to eliminate hunger and to address its root causes, and it relies upon donations of money, time, voices, food, resources, knowledge and abilities. Pictured is the current location of the Foodbank Community Produce Hub in Franklin — the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center. “It has refrigeration and freezer capacity, so not only are we delivering fresh produce, but we’re also delivering lean frozen meats and dairy products, all of those products that are highly nutritious, and in current times as we’re experiencing inflation which is impacting grocery store costs, it’s those products that are some of the most expensive at the grocery store,” Inman said. “We are delivering those free of charge to neighbors in communities where that access is really needed the most, to vulnerable communities.” She noted that Western Tidewater is being served by this initiative.
Inman also noted that the area will be served starting this summer through the Foodbank’s Western Tidewater Branch and Community Produce Hub that is being built at 618 South St. in Franklin. The Foodbank is currently operating out of a temporary location at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Franklin. The new branch and hub at 618 South St. will have what is called a client-choice model, enabling people to browse and choose their own fresh, healthy grocery products like they were in a grocery store. The new branch and hub will also have
the capability to help eliminate hunger through the other key avenue — addressing hunger’s root causes. “We recognize that providing a meal to people is not enough to end hunger,” Inman said. “So we are partnering to do financial literacy and workforce development. We have partnerships with educational partners, we have partnerships with health care partners, so getting at all of those things that are causing people to experience food insecurity, and by addressing that, we hope to be able to help people on the path to self-sufficiency.” The second floor of the new branch
