Until 10 years ago, life was good for Frank. The avid outdoorsman lived with his wife in a house they owned in Albemarle County. A building contractor by trade, Frank enjoyed hunting and fishing with his three beloved flushing dogs that he trained himself. I met Frank recently at the Scottsville Mobile Food Pantry, where [...]
The problem of hunger isn’t always visible, and it takes a community to identify the need for food assistance and ensure that everyone has enough to eat. When it comes to helping children grow up healthy, pediatricians are vital to determining whether a child is eating enough and have a growing body of tools to [...]
Years ago, the Food Bank got on board with the Gus Bus/Reading Road Show to distribute food to children in low-income neighborhoods. Recently, we began trailing the bus in our own van to bring fresh produce to their families. We now serve more than 500 children each month through this Neighborhood Produce Market, and we need [...]
In early summer, each chamber of Congress passed its own version of the Farm Bill, which funds critically important food assistance programs for food banks as well as for SNAP – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. The Senate passed a bi-partisan bill – 86 voting yes, 11 voting no – that [...]
If you’re like me and grew up in the Valley or have lived here for a while, it may be hard to fathom the fact that more then 31,000 of our Valley neighbors struggle with food insecurity. Maybe it’s because the majority of us convey the middle class persona - we work hard in our [...]
By Victoria Sia, University of Virginia student and Madison House volunteer As 2:30 pm drew near on a Wednesday afternoon, I was nervous yet excited for my first volunteer at Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. I had never actually volunteered at a food bank before, but my summer swim team always volunteered together for an [...]
It’s easy to care about a hungry child. But what about her mom and dad? How compassionate are we toward the parents, especially if their family’s plight is the result of their own, poor choices? It’s a tough question. We Americans are unique in the world for the measure of our philanthropy, but we also [...]