Category: Information on Hunger

The Complex Emergency Food System: Feeding America, Food Banks and Food Pantries

Posted on by Trish McNeal

The emergency food system in the US is a complex system of food sources and distribution networks. This link is a great resource for an overall explanation of how the Feeding America food bank network functions across the country.

This post is a necessarily simplified version that explains specifically how food comes to Loudoun Hunger Relief. Continue reading “The Complex Emergency Food System: Feeding America, Food Banks and Food Pantries” →

Loudoun Hunger Relief Focuses on Good Nutrition

Posted on by Trish McNeal

March is National Nutrition Month.  This is a good time to remember Loudoun Hunger Relief provides not only food, but also information to help families make tasty and nutritious meals.  LHR is proud to work alongside partners such as Five Stone Institute and Virginia Cooperative Extension, Loudoun County Office to provide nutrition education to the community.  This week’s spotlight is a video from our Cooking on a Budget Continue reading “Loudoun Hunger Relief Focuses on Good Nutrition” →

Learn more about hunger in America

Posted on by Trish McNeal

Prior to the pandemic, Feeding America estimated that 50 million Americans, including 1 in 4 children nationwide, were food insecure. That means that they often don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they run out of food before they have the means to buy more, or they purchase filling, low cost, but low nutritive value foods to fill bellies instead of higher cost fruits, vegetables or higher nutrition items. We recommend this sobering movie, A Place at the Table, for a closer look at what’s behind our problem with hunger in America.

Continue reading “Learn more about hunger in America” →

Wait, what day is this?

Posted on by Trish McNeal

It seems like time is going by in an otherworldly blur. Our routines have been upended, and our days look nothing like they did six months ago. With the rate of change we’re still facing, both in our personal lives and in our work at the pantry, it doesn’t seem like the ground will stop moving under us anytime soon. This is a hard year, this is hard stuff, and we are doing hard things.

People all over Loudoun are having a hard time in different ways. Parents are struggling with making the right choices to support their children’s educations. Seniors are struggling with the social isolation that is part and parcel of staying safe. Children are struggling with not seeing their friends for months upon months. Masks are a new fashion statement, but the rules keep changing about which ones work.

Layer economic insecurity over all of that, and you have an even harder struggle. Families with income loss have all the same hard issues to face as everyone else PLUS the stress and anxiety of having to choose which bills will be paid and which will wait for a later day of reckoning.

Every day at Loudoun Hunger, someone asks “Wait, what day is this?” Sometimes it’s a tired volunteer or staff person, and the question is asked with a kind of bemused exhaustion. Sometimes it’s a person in need calling for an appointment, and the question is asked because they are just so overwhelmed.

Whoever asks the question, everyone else understands why. There’s no judgement here for day confusion! It’s the burden of worry about what will happen today, and uncertainty about tomorrow.

What we can do is make sure, to the best of our ability, that there is enough food to help those who need it for as long as this situation lasts. And so we are doing our planning for the fall and winter months, sourcing shelf-stable food as much in advance as we can. We may not always know what day it is, but we are laser focused on helping those in need have access to adequate, nutritious food. That makes every day a day well spent.