The Central Virginia Food Bank (CVFB) fights hunger in our region through a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach to reach our region's most vulnerable people.

Our Food Distribution Center provides food and grocery products to an extensive network of partner agencies which serve individual families in need.

Our Kids Cafés serve balanced evening meals and/or healthy snacks to at-risk children in partnering after-school programs throughout Metro Richmond and the Tri-Cities.

Our Summer Food Service offers breakfast and lunch meals each weekday for low-income children and youth in partnering programs while school is out.

Our Weekend BackPack Program provides enough healthy food for six meals to feed children who don't have access to reliable meals on Saturday and Sunday.

Our Mobile Pantries transport perishable and non-perishable food directly to targeted communities of need.

In addition:

• Emergency Pantry – A food supply at the agency’s site facility created to meet the immediate and in some cases long-term food needs for the target groups such as the elderly, children, the unemployed, the working poor, victims of disaster, the sick and those in crisis.
   
• USDA/TEFAP – The Emergency Food Assistance Program is a Federal program of the USDA that distributes federally supplied commodities such as canned and frozen food to eligible households. Eligibility in this program is based on recipient income and can be received once a month from one EFO. There are approximately 75 network partners participating in this program presently. Read more here about the USDA/TEFAP Guidelines for Agencies.
   
• Virginia’s Table/Enabler Direct Donations – 89 network partners are presently assigned to obtain food that is edible but cannot be sold from grocery stores and restaurants. This food is then distributed by the agencies to their clients and the agencies also share their gleanings with other feeding programs in their locality when there is an over abundance.
   
• Kids Café – 54 Kids Cafes (8 are snack sites only) provide a balanced evening meal or snack for 1,900 at-risk children in partnering after-school programs. In addition, CVFB operates a Summer Feeding Program with partnering organizations that provides 4,000 meals each weekday for low-income youngsters.
   
• Community Kitchen – A production kitchen that prepares meals for the Kids Cafes and other non-profit feeding programs.
   
• Senior’s Brown Bag Program – A self-directed program to supplement regular food shopping for senior citizens 55 years of age and over with limited or fixed incomes. Presently there are 25 agencies participating in the Brown Bag Program.
   
• Food Rescue Project – A partnership with the State Department of Corrections, which allows inmates to sort and repack food that has been donated to CVFB.
   
• Super Pantry – An educational program that provides nutrition education workshops with food obtained by CVFB. Workshops are conducted at an agency site and include meal preparation and safe food handling. In 2000, 20 households benefited from this program.
   
• Drop-site Delivery Program – A delivery program for participating agencies located at least 20 miles from Richmond. The agency’s pre-ordered food requests are delivered for a limited fee as a convenience to our outlying partners as a way to meet the hunger needs of those communities.
   
• Bargain Buying Program – A program providing an alternative to supplying partner agency pantries and soup kitchens. Donated foods are not always available to provide well-balanced meals. We have items that have been purchased at wholesale prices and the savings are passed onto the agencies. These goods are withdrawn using the regular procedure
  
  
  1. Withdraw at the Central Virginia Food Bank
  2. FAX in order for pickup to (804) 521-3289
     
     
• Child and Adult Care Food Program- A program allowing in-home childcare providers sponsored by an authorized child development agency to withdraw food for the children in their care. The withdrawn food must conform to the USDA nutrition guidelines illustrated in the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. There are over 130 In-Home Care Providers at present.

  If you have an interest in this program, you can contact one of the 4 childcare sponsoring agencies listed below to get further information.

  Memorial Child Guidance Clinic
  Leslie Moore at (804) 644-9590 EXT. 3023

  Richmond Community Action Program
  Hester Walker at (804) 788-0204

  The Norfolk Planning Council
  Hermenia Armstrong at (800) 477-3993 EXT. 3025

  The Fort Lee Child Development Services
  Kim White at (804) 765-3853

   

  Orientation to the Food Bank for In-Home Providers will be held on the 2nd Thursday (12:30-3:00 PM)  every other month. The dates for 2010 are:
  
      January 14, 2010       
      March 11, 2010       
      May 13, 2010
      July 8, 2010           
      September 9, 2010       
      November 11, 2010