HAMPTON, Va. — Lavonne Brown is one of many residents on the peninsula grateful to pick up fresh food provided by the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.
“It helps out a whole lot and we’re blessed,” resident Lavonne Brown said.
Volunteers hold a mobile food distribution every month at the Hampton Coliseum parking lot.
“Normally, we serve 250 to 300 households each month at just this site,” said Karen Joyner, chief executive officer of the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.
Though, they took it a step further Wednesday morning planning to serve roughly 400 households and feed more than just their stomachs.
“We established a great partnership with organizations like NASA to create a science kit. We call it a learning lunchbox,” said Andy Aichele, the senior director of education engagement for the Center of Science and Industry (COSI).
COSI partnered with NASA Langley and the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank to hand out hundreds of learning lunchboxes. It’s filled with activities and experiments for kids from kindergarten through eighth grade.
“Those experiments and activities range from launching your own rocket to designing a moon base and really getting excited about the work that NASA is doing around the Artemis I rocket,” Aichele said.
About 30,000 learning lunchboxes will be distributed at local foodbanks across the country. Lavonne Brown said she's excited to share this gift with her young children and inspire them as history unfolds before them.
“Even though they’re young, you want to start them off early. Use their mind, something they can invest in,” she said.
Joyner said the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank holds a mobile food distribution event on the fourth Wednesday of every month in the Hampton Coliseum parking lot starting at 10 am.