Hunger In Our Community

Hunger across the Greater Peninsula

What does it mean to be food insecure? Food insecurity is a lack of consistent, predictable access to food that is affordable and nutritious. It is a condition experienced by economic hardships and indicated by running out of food, not having the money to buy more food, and not having access to healthy food. For instance, many residents of urban areas live in food deserts – areas without grocery stores, where the only food available is in the form of pre-packaged, highly-processed snacks.

Hunger Facts

It is estimated that one in nine individuals is affected by food insecurity across the greater Peninsula or 61,000 people who are chronically experiencing the lack of healthy food on a given day. This is particularly devastating for the close to one in five or almost 24,000 children, whose ability to learn is negatively impacted by hunger. Malnutrition is linked with delayed development, increased risk of chronic illnesses, and behavioral problems in children. Getting enough healthy food is vital to ensuring kids can achieve their goals.  Food insecurity is most frequently experienced by single-income, single-parent households, seniors, veterans and those without adequate transportation. Everyone deserves to have enough food to eat without having to worry if they can afford it.

Hunger lives in all pockets of our community.

The increase in food and fuel costs have made it even more difficult for families facing hunger to access enough to eat and have put additional strains on food banks to purchase more food than ever due to the increase in need. With the higher cost of living, the Foodbank is experiencing an increase of up to 35% of individuals reaching out for assistance.  For fiscal year ending June, 2023, the Foodbank's programs, mobile food pantry distributions and partner agencies have had close to 322,000 visits compared to fiscal year ending June, 2022 244,000 visits.  With this substantial increase in need, and a decrease in food donations, the Foodbank is utilizing their purchasing power, with your help, to buy more healthy food.

The past several years have been tough for a lot of families. Too many families across our community live with the anxiety of not knowing where their next healthy meal is coming from.  Hunger is closer than you think. It could be your neighbor, co-worker, family member, or a friend.

Gabrielle's Story

Gabrielle, a food assistance recipient, tells us after receiving emergency food assistance that "we were very close to skipping dinners just to avoid losing our apartment and keeping gas in the car for my husband to get to work. We were cutting every possible expense before cutting food, but I am so happy I found the Foodbank so that we could get some groceries to tide us over."  Gabrielle was injured at her place of employment and didn't have a lot of sick leave accrued, so she had to go on leave without pay.

Hunger in America - Map the Meal Gap

Advocacy plays an important role in our fight against hunger. Currently, based on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap, the Greater Peninsula has one of the highest levels of food insecure families in the state of Virginia. Over 61,000 individuals in the Foodbank’s service area, almost 20,000 of which are children, have limited or uncertain access to adequate food to live a healthy nutritious life. Help us make a difference by sharing our story.

Feeding America publishes a comprehensive Map the Meal Gap study, which estimates the rate of food insecurity for both the general population and children under the age of 18. The estimates are calculated at the county and congressional-district level for the entire Feeding America network.

Learn more about hunger across America with the Map the Meal Gap research provided by Feeding America.