NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Dominion Energy partnered with the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore to fill a bucket truck with more than 4,000 pounds of food to feed hungry families.
“This particular drive comes at a really good time for us,” said Foodbank CEO and president Christopher Tan. “We have 215 food pantry partners — … those are the local churches and nonprofit organizations that do food support in our community that help us deliver that.”
Tan said local food pantries are seeing a 30% increase in the amount of people needing help.
“A distribution that used to do 500 families a month is now doing 800, 850, and the resources are spread thin,” Tan said.
Cans of corn, BBQ sauce, peanut butter and more were packaged and sent off with the Foodbank to help families across Hampton Roads.
“I picked the Foodbank, in particular, so that it can reach a wider community,” said Christina Murff with Dominion Energy. “You know, they have the resources to take it to some of those more remote areas where those communities might not have a local foodbank or church or something like that, so I wanted to get it in the right hands to get as far as possible.”
Four Dominion offices in the area competed to raise the most food. Murff said the drive far exceeded the original goal of 300 items. In total, Dominion employees brought in more than 4,143 pounds of food.
“We live and we work here, and our families are here,” Murff said. “Our kids are here, so we want to be able to support the communities that we’re so much a part of.”
With the holidays approaching, the Foodbank will be busy delivering 12,000 turkeys to the community.
“Thanksgiving and holidays are like our Super Bowl,” Tan said. “We get a lot of donations in, which is wonderful. And we’re really, really busy. But hunger doesn’t have a season, so it brings a lot of attention to our work, but it doesn’t mean that our work is any less valuable during the rest of the season.”
If you are interested in donating to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, click here.