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”
It’s Hunger Action Month, and Loudoun Hunger Relief has an action challenge to meet! Your donations can be matched dollar for dollar for the first year of your monthly gifts!
We’re recruiting 30 new monthly donors at $30 or more per month in honor of the 30 days in Hunger Action Month, and in honor of Loudoun Hunger’s upcoming 30th Anniversary of service to the Loudoun community.
The first 30 new monthly donors to sign up in September 2021 will have their donations matched for 12 months by one of our current generous donors!
It’s the perfect time to support those in need of food in our community, and have your dollars go twice as far.
Just go to loudounhunger.org/donate-now, choose your $30 or higher monthly donation, and choose the monthly option.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ACTION!
September is Hunger Action Month. There are many ways to support those in need of food in our community all year long, but in September, we ask your help in special ways. Continue reading “September”
This is one of those “it’s practically 2022” posts.
Fall is almost here.
It’s time to make the Thanksgiving Dinner Bags. Continue reading “It’s Almost Thanksgiving!!!!”
It’s 2020, so we don’t have to explain why the Loudoun Empty Bowls event was completely different this year. Instead of a celebratory end of summer night out at the lovely Stone Tower Winery with friends and family, we had a two night drive through bowl pick up.
There were hundreds of air hugs, and lots of quick catching up among people who haven’t seen one another in a long six months. Puffy clouds floated through a sky dimmed by smoke from far away fires, making for a spectacular sunset tinged with all the worry, grief, and angst of 2020. People were glad to come to the mountain to give help to those in need, and gather up a bit of hope for themselves.
Beauty in the midst of this very difficult year is very welcome. Here are a few photos of the loveliness that is Loudoun Empty Bowls. Let’s hope for a return to gathering and shared community next year. In the meantime, we’re grateful for the helpers, the doers, the pot throwers and decorators who contribute to Loudoun Empty Bowls and the effort to feed those in need.
Here at Loudoun Hunger Relief, we hit a dubious milestone at the end of July. From March through July, the first five months of the COVID-19 crisis, we distributed more than 1 million pounds of food. We’re not exactly cheering. Continue reading “1 Million Pounds of Food, 1 Family at a Time”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen lots of different brands of community generosity. One of the ways people have been generous is toilet paper donations.
From the beginning, when TP was not to be had, we’ve gotten donations of it here and there. We’ve held them for our most vulnerable populations–our elderly and disabled shut ins.
Now that the TP is rolling again, we’re seeing donations of all sizes. This is what was on our shelves yesterday. Who knew TP was made in such variety!
Loudoun Hunger Relief is moving forward to meet the growing need. Every day brings a new challenge. The need for services is growing just at the time that we can’t allow volunteers in the building. We know this is a marathon, but we’re also having to accelerate at a sprinter’s pace to meet the demand for services.
Market Room use during COVID-19 crisis
Market Room before COVID-19 crisis
Market Room use during COVID-19 crisisWe planned for this crisis, and our emergency planning has served us well. We’ve kept pace so far, and we’re working to make sure we can keep it up in the weeks (hopefully not months!) to come.
Our service numbers are up 50% in just three weeks. So many seeking services are newly unemployed–it’s truly heartbreaking. We expect that our service numbers will be up again this week. Each “number” is a family with a job loss or reduction in hours to cope with. We hurt for each of them and for our community.
On the bright side, we live in an incredibly generous place and donors have been helping us keep this ship moving forward. So many have supplied food and monetary donations, as well as sent lovely encouraging notes via email, snail mail or social media.
We thank everyone for the support, and the positive messages! Keep it coming!
In the last two weeks, nearly 1000 donors have provided money, food, or other material assistance to us as we geared up our operations for the need we know is to come. It’s a lot.
Today, our phones were ringing way more than usual for a Thursday morning, as many people in our area are facing their first week with no paycheck. People are worried about how they will take care of their families. It’s a lot to think and worry about.
We are humbled by the outpouring of support. We are equally humbled by the grace of those we serve. It’s a lot to take in.
The pace of change, the underlying anxiety, the generosity, the strength of spirit; it’s all a lot. We are grateful to live in such an amazing community, and grateful for the support we’re receiving. And it’s a lot!
It’s Tuesday at LHR and we’re living “today’s normal” every day. We are profoundly grateful to so many people who are helping us with food or financial donations. One donor let us know he is contributing $50 a day to LHR for every day he is forced to work from home. Many have phoned us to see what we need, and many others have sent generously from our Amazon wish list.
A typical Tuesday has appointment based service hours in the morning and again in the evening. On a typical Tuesday, we serve about 50 families total. Today, we served 75. This was not a typical Tuesday.<–!more–>
We are proud that our staff of eight people, along with help from the Loudoun County Department of Parks and Recreation personnel, has managed to keep up with the demand for emergency food. We are adhering to CDC guidelines to have no more than 10 people in any one place, and to have them at least three feet apart. This slows down our operations, but the safety of everyone is the first concern.
There is much to do to keep up with demand, and we are doing it while adding all the extra steps it takes to sanitize, keep the shelves stocked, and pack emergency orders.
We have shifted our service completely to the outdoors, and we give thanks daily for the good weather we’ve had. We have also shifted completely to pre-packed bags. This speeds service, and provides very a very similar selection of groceries to every family. Traditionally, we have packed groceries to order, honoring special requests where possible. In today’s normal, we don’t have the variety of food we normally would, and we’re doing our best to help everyone get through this crisis.
We adjust things every day to be faster, better, more efficient and more caring. When we make mistakes, and we do, we apologize, fix them and move onward.
We feel ready for tomorrow, in “today’s normal”.
Help feed our neighbors in need in Loudoun County today! 96 cents of every donated dollar goes directly to fund program services.
EIN: 54-1591635
Combined Virginia Campaign: 200424
Combined Federal Campaign: 67367
United Way of NCA: 8483