Loaves & Fishes

With humble beginnings as a food pantry located inside a local Methodist church, Loaves & Fishes is now the largest of the Blue Ridge Area Food Banks. An ever-growing client base has led Loaves & Fishes to take many steps in order to continue meeting the needs of the community, beginning with its incorporation as a secular non-profit in 2011 and relocating to a larger facility. Loaves & Fishes currently distributes over 1.5 million pounds of food annually to local families. It is not the volume of service alone that makes Loaves & Fishes stand apart.

Despite their massive growth, issues came to light that were limiting Loaves’ ability to have the greatest impact on the community. “We were receiving our own food back in donations,” said Executive Director Margaret McNett Burruss. Freight fees and wasted food caused by this predicament were unnecessarily inhibiting the impact on the community. The staff  decided to re-examine the way clients were being served.

They began this endeavor by talking to as many clients as possible. “We found that thirty percent of the clients that we served had one wage earner with a disability that prevented them from working,” Margaret continued, “In fact, one half of the clients reported needing low sodium diets due to health problems, and one third had a member of their household who required a special diet for diabetes.”

These needs were not being met with the current system for donation pickup. On a specified day, one family member would come to the pantry and be given several bags of groceries that had been selected for them, which the client may or may not be able to use. Resolving this problem would increase impact, but what would work best for the community was not known. Then one day, Margaret was shopping for groceries when an employee offered her a sample of bread. After politely declining, he insisted, “How do you know if you’ll like it if you won’t try it?” In that moment, she gained a small glimpse into the experience of those seeking help.

The “Client Choice” model would eliminate waste, increased freight costs, and enable clients to best help their own families. With this new model, clients would be able to go through the pantry with a shopping cart and select the items most needed by their families, giving them a choice and control over their own dietary needs.

Members of the Loaves & Fishes teams began visiting other food pantries, exploring the logistics of how to make Client Choice a reality here in Charlottesville.

At the same time they were researching, an increase in clientbase  made renewing their existing lease unrealistic for the space they were in. They would have to move in order to accommodate the growing needs of the community.

“We wanted to start the Client Choice model on our first day in the new building,” Margaret said. Toward the end of 2014, through the help of generous donors, they acquired the “Nunley” building. “We named it the Nunley Building, because the Nunley family donated more than half of the funds needed to purchase the building, so this is our way of thanking them,” said Margaret.

The new Client Choice format began on August 1, 2015, the day they opened in their new location. Both have been a booming success. “It’s like Grocery Shopping,” said Tara, an out of work mother of three, “I can get things my family needs, and it feels more dignified than the old way.”

“We are so thankful for the help of Loaves,” said Janice, a disabled retiree, “Without their help, it would be harder to get the food my husband and I need each month.”

When asked why the need in our community seemed to be increasing, Margaret explained that many of the blue collar factory jobs that had supported the middle class in Charlottesville had left, possibly for good. Companies like Comdial, Lexis Nexis, and Biotage have closed their doors. Between 1997 and 2007, more than half of the manufacturing jobs in the area were lost, many to be replaced with low paying retail and service positions.

Many of the clients at Loaves & Fishes formerly held manufacturing jobs and do not have transferrable skills in the new economy. “We are hearing from many clients that they have ‘never had to do this before’,” said Margaret. “They grew up middle class, and only now are dealing with food insecurity.”

More than just a food bank, Loaves & Fishes is also trying to build community. With the mission statement of Neighbors Helping Neighbors, they give credit to local volunteers who donated more than 13,000 hours to help with distribution in 2014.

Donations of cash, food and time are a great help, but for those who cannot afford to donate, there is still a way to contribute.  Signing up for Amazonsmile or Kroger Community Rewards and selecting Loaves & Fishes as the desired recipient, both companies will donate a percentage of all purchases at no additional cost.