Feeding Southwest Virginia

Why Donate to Feeding Southwest Virginia?

Feeding Southwest Virginia Food Bank has been stepping up to provide food and hope in Southwest Virginia for 40 years. We provide needed food to our hungry neighbors in every corner of our service region, even the most remote communities. Over 100,000 children, adults, and seniors receive charitable food support from the Food Bank each month across our 12,400 square miles in Southwest Virginia. This area is disproportionately affected by food insecurity for several reasons. Rural areas tend to face food challenges at higher rates due to lack of transportation, long distances to grocery stores, high unemployment, and underemployment with lack of good-paying jobs. Additionally, with the decline in coal, furniture, textile, and tobacco industries that long sustained the region, economic prosperity is difficult. We talk to many receiving food who mention that their grandfathers had good-paying jobs, but those wages are hard to secure now.

Thousands of Southwest Virginia residents lack the food they need to lead healthy, active lives. The 2021 Map The Meal Gap study suggests that over 162,000 individuals are food insecure, including almost 41,000 children in our 26 county footprint. Overall, the food insecurity rate for Southwest Virginia is 14% and for children, 18.3 %. We serve the 10 poorest counties in the state and in some, the food insecurity rate is up to 30% among children.

This problem impacts the health, education, and quality of life for thousands of adults and children in Southwest Virginia. We need your support to reduce hunger in our region.

We urge you to support this important mission of feeding the hungry throughout the mountains and valleys of Southwest Virginia.

Thank you for caring about hunger.