NORFOLK, Va. — Food insecurity is an ongoing trend impacting families each year.
“It’s not surprising but it is difficult to see,” said Chris Tan, the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore CEO.
He said new figures from 2022 reported by Feeding America match the challenges Hampton Roads residents see daily. It shows Norfolk has the highest food insecurity rate compared to other cities in Hampton Roads, with the Mermaid City sitting at 13% in 2022. That's a 2% increase compared to 2021. Meanwhile, Newport News has a rate of 12.4%, and Suffolk and Chesapeake see the lowest rate at 8.6%.
“The service area that the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank serves…we have the highest rate of child food insecurity in the entire state,” said Virginia Peninsula Foodbank CEO Karen Joyner. "20% of all the children across the greater Virginia Peninsula are living in food insecure households. That went up from 14.8% from the prior study."
Although the food study data is a couple of years behind, Tan said foodbank community partners have reported a 20% to 30% increase in people served over the last few years.
“So, a pantry that was serving 400 families a month is now serving a thousand,” he said.
It’s a similar story on the Peninsula.
“We are seeing consistent 35% to 40% increases year over year,” said Joyner. "That held true for the month of April, our most recent month, compared to April of last year."
Joyner said her team is buying more food to keep up with demand.
“In our mobile food pantries… we have consistently been running out of food even though we have taken more and more food each time,” she explained.
Meanwhile in Norfolk, Tan said, just like Joyner, the foodbank is doing its best to help.
“The foodbank delivers the weight of an elephant of food every hour that we’re open but to meet the need, it would have to be four elephants an hour,” he said.
Both foodbank leaders are asking community members for donations to keep their efforts going and they're also looking for volunteers to help.