Southwest Virginia has the highest food insecurity need in Virginia at a time when the pandemic has caused incredible job losses, illness and ever increasing food prices at the grocery store.
Amanda Bocchi spoke with one musician using his talent and connections to feed hungry families across Southwest Virginia.
Musician Bob Schmucker recognized there was a growing need to help food insecure families and began live streaming his music from home asking for donations to help support Feeding Southwest Virginia, one of the busiest food non profits in the region.
“I did it for the first 5 or 6 weeks myself, til I started running out of material," Schmucker remembers with a laugh. "And then I just said, 'well, I’m gonna move this over to the coffee house and get all my buddies involved.'”
Schmucker is a volunteer at the Third Street Coffee House, an old cabin-like room in the basement of Trinity United Methodist Church in Roanoke. Since it’s not safe to have a room full of listeners and performers, he’s been hosting a new artist every Tuesday and live streaming the event. All proceeds have been donated to Feeding SW Virginia. To the tune of $7,690 since May.
Every dollar raised is turned into five nutritious meals by Feeding Southwest Virginia. In 2019 the organization fed 110,000 people monthly. With the full force of the pandemic it's currently feeding 140,000 monthly.
Click here for more information about Feeding Southwest Virginia
Feeding Southwest Virginia had to suddenly pivot to serve the expanding need for first time food insecure families. In March Feeding Southwest Virginia utilized the money set aside for their summer feeding program to serve children who were involved in virtual learning. The nature of food pantries shifted to pop up food pantries and no-contact distribution car lines where volunteers put a box of food in each trunk.
Feeding Southwest Virginia serves 26 counties in Virginia. The food it distributes comes through many different avenues: food donation, USDA boxes and purchaced food by Feeding Southwest Virginia. Prior to the pandemic it was able to make 6 meals from each dollar. Because of the increased cost of groceries due to the pandemic, that number has decreased to 5 meals per dollar.