Families

By the Numbers

Pre-Covid-19 Data

Nationally, 1 in 9 individuals (10.9%) and 1 in 7 children (14.6%) lived in a food-insecure household prior to the pandemic. This means they have limited or uncertain access to adequate food to live a healthy nutritious lifestyle.

What this means locally

Greater Peninsula has the highest level of food insecure families in the state of Virginia.

Gloucester 9.5% – 3540 people, 200 are children

James City 7.7% – 5750 people, 1400 are children

Mathews 10.3% – 910 people, 180 are children

Surry 10.1, – 660 people, 200 are children

York 7.0% – 4790 people, 1320 are children

Since the pandemic, unemployment rates have risen, working hours have been reduced, businesses have closed, and schools have gone virtual. This translates to a predictable rise in the number of individuals going hungry.

Many people who have been most impacted by the pandemic were food insecure or at risk of food insecurity before COVID-19 and are facing greater hardship since COVID-19. 4.

Most recent data shows an increase to 1 in 7 people have been estimated to be impacted as a result of the pandemic.

How The Virginia Peninsula Foodbank helps

The Foodbank helps families with The Mobile Food Pantry Program, which delivers and distributes fresh, healthy food directly into the communities that need it. Mobile Food Pantry programs provide many benefits to the Foodbank, its partner agencies, and the neighborhoods they service:

Virginia Peninsula Foodbank, through a network of nearly 130 community partners, efficiently sources and distributes over 12 million pounds of food annually to residents across the greater Peninsula who are at risk of hunger.

Kids Backpack Program serves over 1,300 children each week for 30 weeks of the school year and over 500 for ten weeks during the summer.

Kids Cafe Along with an evening meal, each Kids Cafe offers a variety of enrichment activities such as tutoring, mentoring, life skills training and nutrition education.

Go to the Ways to Give page to learn the many ways you can help end hunger in your community.

All data for this page can be found at: FeedingAmerica.org.