For obvious reasons, the focus of late has been on people and how they will fare without SNAP and with food and other prices the way they are.
But focusing on people means ensuring their food suppliers―food pantries, 24/7 little food pantries, community dinners, and the like―have the food and other resources they need to keep the food flowing. Here are some ways to help:
- Monetary donations to Healthy Harvest Food Bank directed to a particular food pantry or county are the gold standard. The food bank’s buying power is turbocharged by design and this matters a lot now. HHFB is able to buy food items such as rice and canned vegetables at a substantial discount and pass that on to their food pantry partners. Think about it: Would you rather spend $0.20 on a can of corn or $0.59? (These are made up numbers to illustrate the point, but I do know that meat is available to food pantries from HHFB for $0.19/lb.)
Head over to the food bank’s Find Help page for a map and/or list of food pantry partners. Then make your donation. And then encourage others to do the same.
- Support non-HHFB food pantries. The Free food on the NNK map not only shows you where the pantries are but it allows you to download the information to make it usable for donation purposes. Noteworthy on this map are the “emergency” or 24/7 pantries and the private pantries serving particular populations, such as the one at Rappahannock Community College and the free clinic.
- Free meal sites. As identified in Community meals and food events (free and paid) , a number of churches on the Northern Neck offer free community meals. They are also worthy of your financial support.
Funding the sharing of information with those who use a pantry or community dinner is also important. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked. Providing funding to one or more agencies interested in printing bag stuffers about other important resources is money well spent. And the practice can continue even after the shutdown ends for things like free/affordable tax preparation.
