PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — In Portsmouth, visits by the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore a go a long way.
A Biden-era executive order covered the cost of healthy proteins and fresh produce for satellite food bank distribution sites at Third Baptist Church and the Wesley Community Center. This week, that program was rattled by the DOGE chainsaw.
“So this would be $300,000 in funding for us,” said Chris Tann, president and CEO of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore. “Every year, it would be over 6,000 meals a month in produce and 3,000 meals a month in protein.”
Across the country, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has slashed more than a billion dollars in federal spending that allows foodbanks and schools to buy nutritious proteins and produce from local farms.
“So if you’re talking about 6,000, 9,000 meals a month, basically between produce and protein, which is the product that we want the most of, it’s also a very important product to us,” Tann said. “This isn’t just dry goods, which is always important as well, but producing protein is something that we know make people healthier. So you’re talking about at least 9,000 people a month that won’t have a meal.”
Census poverty numbers tell the story of a region that has a disproportionate level of people who live in poverty.
Families living in poverty
- Portsmouth 18 %
- Norfolk 17 %
- Newport News 15 %
- Franklin 19%
- National average 12.5 %
From numbers to faces, 10 On Your Side shows you, up close, how food insecurity affects families.
In some schools, the meals served for breakfast and lunch are the children’s only meals for the day. At Third Baptist Church, at a drive through distribution event, those who have cars are allowed to pick up enough food for their neighbors who don’t have transportation.
10 On Your Side also learned of a grandmother who is caring for three teen boys whose parents are unable to care for their offspring. This mother relies on the Foodbank to feed her grandchildren.
“Over the last two and a half years, we’ve increased our produce distribution by about 50% and our protein distribution by about 50%,” Tann said. “So that means that, over the last two years, we’ve increased produce and protein distribution each by 50% because those are the things that our neighbors need to stay healthy, just be engaged in our community, to be educated in our community.”
Because of the high poverty rate in the region, the Foodbank secured Congressional funding of more than $1 million to build a new location in Virginia. Beach. Tann says DOGE may also cut that funding from the federal budget.
The Foodbank is calling on the community to help the organization help the people of Hampton Roads.
“So this is a facility in Virginia Beach that we were going to be using, utilizing Congressional funding to do the design and the building of the project in addition to raising a significant amount of money from our community,” Tann said. “And so it’s definitely a quick change for us that we won’t have that money coming in and it will be a tough to make it up for sure.”
Tann said the community has ways it can help the Foodbank. He said it’s hard to plan ahead when they don’t know what’s coming next. He said they’ve talked about the cuts that are coming through the local food purchase agreement, noting it’s for local farmers and the foodbanks to work together.
“That’s one cut,” he said. “But we’re also worried about other cuts that might happen. The beauty of this is that through those cuts and through hard times, the public steps up. So we’re going to need the public’s help again. We’re going to have to make these meals up somewhere else. And hopefully that will be with the generosity of those who give to us.”
