Providing Meals for the Hungry

For every year that I’ve been at HBA, they’ve decided to forgo the traditional “client gift” and printed Holiday Card in lieu of a donation to a worthy cause. If you remember back to November, HBA participated in CANstruction, an event that combined two of our favorite things: Architecture and Food. HBA was able to help donate over 2,500 cans to the foodbank for distribution with that event. For the Holidays, HBA decided to once again donate to the Foodbank, providing 8,403 meals to those in need.

We visited the Foodbank on a Friday, which is their only day of distributing food to folks directly. All other days, the Foodbank generally acts as a distribution center to other assistance programs throughout Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore. Here’s a little more about the Foodbank and the services they provide (from their website):

Provides nutritious canned, boxed, fresh, frozen, and prepared food to over hundreds of thousands of individuals annually (12,000+ of these live on the Eastern Shore). This food is recovered and secured from restaurants, supermarkets, food distributors, the USDA, farmers, wholesalers, sportsmen, and through food and fund drives.

Assembles a full-course, nutritious meal for only $.32 – much less than the price of a postage stamp! In fact, for every $10 donation the Foodbank receives, we can assemble and distribute over $60 worth of groceries.

Distributes emergency food to over 400 Partner Agencies and Programs including soup kitchens, food pantries, emergency shelters, Mobile Pantries, our Kids Cafe and BackPack Programs. By accessing food from the Foodbank rather than purchasing from commercial outlets, each of these Partner Agencies has expanded resources to advance their own missions.

For more information and how to get in contact with them, check out their website: http://www.foodbankonline.org/

Kelly Goldman