CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The Southeastern Foodbank of Virginia held a drive-thru distribution for families in need of goods.
Chesapeake City Council and The Southeastern Foodbank partnered together to provide funding and resources to aid families suffering from food insecurity.
This initiative falls under the American Rescue Plan Act which helps reduce hardship and supports economic assistance to food programs.
David Brandt, Senior Director of Communications tells News 3, the region is suffering from a significant inflation increase causing many people to become food insecure.
"You know there are a couple of ways to look at food insecurity, we do have statistics that show that the overall rate of food insecurity in the region is about 11.5 percent but there are certain segments of the population that are suffering at a much greater level mainly seniors, African Americans, children especially, we see certain parts of Hampton Roads where the food insecurity rate for children exceeds 25 percent, said David."
Today at Greenbrier Mall people were provided with forty-five pounds of produce and canned goods including non-refrigerated items.
Foodbank's David Brandt says, after the event, they were able to serve over 900 people during the giveaway.
With today's turnout, both the Foodbank and Chesapeake City council aim to provide more funding to expand the distribution sites to more locations across the Commonwealth.
"We are determining how many more we should do based off of responses and by the way we see things going today looks like the need is as great as we expected, said Brandt."
For more information on distribution sites and food assistance programs click here.
