HAMPTON, Va. — The Virginia Peninsula Foodbank is hoping a $25,000 grant will help them feed thousands of hungry children and their families.
The nonprofit is in a competition to win the money from State Farm Insurance.
Foodbank CEO Karen Joyner says they’re going to use the money for their backpack feeding program, which makes sure school-aged children across the peninsula have something to eat when they’re not in school.
“Schools had noticed that children would run into their schools on Monday morning, it wasn’t because they were excited to come to school... it's because they hadn’t eaten well over the weekend,” Joyner said. "We slip the food into their own backpacks. That way nobody needs to know who’s getting the free food.”
But it takes a lot of money to fund the program.
“Our backpack program cost us about $250,000 per year to sustain so if we can get $25,000 towards the program, that’s 10 percent of the entire program,” Joyner said. “Each backpack cost about $5 so $25,000 can help us provide 5,000 backpacks to those food-insecure children.”
State Farm Agent Sarah Browning said thousands of organizations applied for the State Farm grant and the Foodbank is one of the finalists relying on votes.
"These grants are what are called crowd-sourced," Browning said. "So instead of State Farm saying, 'This is where we think the money is best used,' the community is able to submit grants and over 2,000 grant [requests] were submitted.”
They need your votes to get the money.
People in the community have to sign up online and you can vote ten times per day for the non-profit you believe deserves the grant.
The website to vote is www.neighborhoodassist.com. The 40 with the most votes from the public will be chosen.
Joyner said for them, the money will go a long way.
“With COVID, it’s estimated that there are 50 percent more children living in food-insecure households," she said.
Another local non-profit is also competing for that coveted $25,000 grant from State Farm.
The Feed the Need program by New Choices-New Minds of Hampton Roads is also one of the 200 finalists. The program provides hot meals to those in need and the homeless.
You have until October 2 to pick your favorite group. The winners will be announced in November.
