The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) says it avoided a canned goods shortfall with a timely donation from Bloomberg Industry Group.
Over Labor Day weekend, the local food bank said it received more than 3,600 canned goods from the Arlington-based affiliate of Bloomberg, which provides legal, tax and business reporting and services.
In a press release, AFAC says it was facing a week-long shortage of canned food donations, which “threatened to disrupt the lifeline they provide to thousands of Arlington families.”
The donation comes as the food pantry, which serves around 3,300 Arlington families a week, is seeing an uptick in clients. It attributes the uptick to inflation and rollbacks in Covid-era federal food assistance and child tax credits.
“As demands for food assistance exponentially increase due to economic setbacks like inflation and cuts in government assistance, AFAC’s mission to provide essential resources to vulnerable families has never been more crucial,” the nonprofit said in a press release.
That need is particularly acute in South Arlington, according to a recent study, which found the area has one of the highest concentrations of families in the nation who cannot afford basic necessities and childcare.
Overall, Bloomberg Industry Group — which has hosted food drives and helped bag food for AFAC before — collected 14,290 pounds of food for distribution.
“It was our privilege to lend a helping hand to AFAC in their time of need,” says Josh Eastright, CEO of the company, which has offices in Crystal City. “We’re proud to support the great work they do serving our local community, and I want to thank our team for their generosity supporting this effort.”
Last Saturday, employees of another company with a significant local presence volunteered with a food distribution event.
Amazon employees teamed up with nonprofit Food for Neighbors, which combats child hunger in the region, to collect nearly 20,000 pounds of food and toiletries, according to a press release.
After the collection, dubbed a “Red Bag” event, the items were distributed to more than 5,800 students across 42 secondary schools across Northern Virginia, including Arlington Community High School, Gunston Middle School, Kenmore Middle School and Wakefield High School.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Amazon as a Food For Neighbors Community Champion and sponsor of our first Red Bag food and toiletry collection event of the new school year,” Karen Joseph, founder and executive director of Food For Neighbors, said in the release.
The event was part of Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, “when tens of thousands of Amazon employees around the world will go out in their communities and do good together,” Melissa Robinson, principal program manager of Volunteering at Amazon, said in a statement.
Amazon previously helped feed Arlington Public Schools families last fall via a $155,000 donation to Food For Neighbors from Amazon Fresh, Joseph noted.
This evening, local architecture firms will go can-to-can in a competition to build elaborate sculptures made from canned goods.
The “Canstruction” event takes place at Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. The creations built tonight will be judged on Saturday, though shoppers can also vote for their favorite canned art sculptures through Monday.
The structures will be on display through next Sunday, when the cans will be donated to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC).
Fashion Centre and the American Institute of Architects Northern Virginia Chapter are putting on the event, which is one of many around the world affiliated with the hunger relief charity Canstruction. Participants are responsible for buying the canned goods, designing the structures and donating what is collected to a local food bank, according to the nonprofit’s website.
For AFAC CEO Charles Meng, events like these are a fun way for people to support the nonprofit, which gets nearly half of its food through donations.
“Food donations make up 40% of the food we distribute,” Charles Meng, CEO of AFAC, told ARLnow. “The 30,000 pounds from Canstruction will go a very long way in meeting our goal of 1.5 million pounds and in helping our families.”
“Canstruction is one of the many creative ways that professional societies like the American Institute of Architects and their Northern Virginia Chapter can help address food insecurity and have great fun doing it,” he added.
Shoppers are also encouraged to donate canned goods or cash to AFAC through QR codes at the Canstruction display through Sept. 16.
The competition moved to the mall this year after being held at either Dulles or National airport in recent years.
The winning team will advance to compete on the international stage against victors from other Canstruction events across the globe.
Photo via AFAC/Facebook
(Updated at 12:45 p.m.) Within Northern Virginia, South Arlington has one of the highest concentrations of families who cannot afford basic needs and childcare.
In this half of the county, 52% of families cannot afford food, housing, medical expenses and childcare, compared to just 15% of families North Arlington, per a new report.
South Arlingtonians are not alone.
About a third of families across Northern Virginia are not earning enough money to subsist, dubbed “income inadequacy” in the report, prepared by Insight Region, the research arm of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Northern Virginia.
The report states that inflation pushed many more families into income inadequacy in the first half of 2023. However, several needs-based nonprofits in Arlington say inflation is not the only contributing factor, pointing also to the rollback of Covid-era benefits.
They tell ARLnow it is time for a systemic overhaul to mitigate increasing income inequality.
“Those basic needs numbers are really concerning to us,” says Brian Marroquín, a program officer at the nonprofit Arlington Community Foundation. “What happens when people lose those benefits is really important… It’s a Catch-22 for many people in our community to try and get ahead while kind of facing the system as it’s set up currently.”
Why families are struggling today
Before the outbreak of Covid, Charles Meng, the CEO of Arlington Food Assistance Center, said his organization typically served about 1,800 to 1,900 families a week. At the height of the pandemic, that number rose to about 2,500 families a week in 2020.
For a short while, the demand for food assistance decreased as case numbers dropped and individuals returned to work. But that changed in February 2022.
“If you’ll remember, inflation started hitting, fuel prices went up first, and then food prices started going up. And since that time, we have seen a steady increase in the number of families coming to us,” Meng told ARLnow. “We’re now serving 3,238 families [a week]… That’s basically a 30% increase from the prior year.”
“I’ve never seen a 30% increase in a year before,” he added.
Meng also attributes the sudden jump partly to inflation, which reduced the purchasing power of already struggling families. He noted the clawing back of other government benefits, such as SNAP, played a role as well.
“These families have effectively gotten a 14% to 15% reduction in their income… They’re paying more for food for a whole bunch of other things,” Meng said.
Data from ACF highlights that over 10,000 households — about 24,000 people — in Arlington make under 30% of the area median income. That translates to about $45,600 for a family of four. AFAC serves many households in that group.
“There’s a lot of families in Arlington County who are hurting,” Meng said.
In addition to SNAP, Marroquín, said the elimination of the Advanced Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty nearly in half during 2021, also dealt a big blow to Arlington families.
“What that did was it put money in parents’ pockets. At the time, it was particularly important for childcare. Childcare was hard to find and got more expensive as well during the pandemic in 2021,” Marroquín said.
Like all the cool kids, the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) is expanding to Alexandria.
The nonprofit food pantry announced in a release that it is launching a new distribution center in The Waypoint at Fairlington, an affordable housing complex at 2451 Menokin Drive that opened last year.
“This is a major step for AFAC in moving beyond Arlington to nearby areas where we can expand on our mission to address long-term food insecurity,” Charles Meng, chief executive officer of AFAC, said in the release.
Nonprofit affordable housing provider Wesley Housing is partnering with AFAC to open the site, which is the food pantry’s first in the City of Alexandria and the second outside of Arlington County, per the release.
Around 2,900 families come to AFAC each week for access to fresh and healthy groceries, per the release. The nonprofit has seen an uptick in people needing assistance, as well as higher grocery bills, due to inflation. It is bracing for more clients now that the federal government last month rolled back a pandemic-era expansion of food assistance benefits, known as SNAP.
“AFAC is already seeing a record number of families coming to our doors weekly,” Meng said in his statement. “The reduction in SNAP benefits will only drive more families to seek our services. While many low income families received an increase in the minimum wage, that increase has already been consumed by inflation especially with the cost of food.”
As part of the partnership with Wesley Housing, residents at The Waypoint who participate in AFAC’s program will receive free weekly supplemental groceries, including chicken, beef, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables and canned goods.
“Our residents in Arlington have been the beneficiaries of AFAC’s program for more than 12 years,” said Wesley Housing Director of Resident Services Irrin Suvanasai. “Mitigating food insecurity at one of our newest communities is another example of our ongoing commitment to create and operate healthy, supportive, stable, affordable housing communities.”
Sally Diaz-Wells, who coordinates the food pantry at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Arlington, just got the weekly egg bill.
It was $2,000, which makes up nearly 20% of the church’s weekly budget of $12,000 for purchasing food for distribution.
Arlington Food Assistance Center CEO Charles Meng says the wholesale price for a dozen eggs in January 2021 was $0.98. This month, AFAC paid $4.45 per dozen. Overall, food prices are up 35% for AFAC, which is already over its $1.3 million budget by $160,000.
The uptick in food prices, driven largely by inflation, is squeezing local food and meal distributors, which are at the same time seeing more Arlington residents come, and come more often, for free food. Inflation again is to blame for this, as clients report their earnings are covering less of their grocery bills, local food assistance providers said during an Arlington Committee of 100 panel on hunger held Wednesday.
“These numbers are not pandemic-related numbers,” Meng said. “These are numbers related to the basic need in Arlington, plus the burdens based on our families by inflation in particular.”
Providers say this is hitting the working poor the worst.
“This group comes to us when they need us, once or twice a month,” Meng said. “When their other benefits start running out, they’ll come to us more often.”
They tend to come after paying for other necessities like rent, utilities and medical expenses, says Stephanie Hopkins, the food security coordinator for Arlington County Department of Human Services.
“We find that people spend their available income on rent, utilities and medical expenses, and other bills, and if there’s enough money to pay for food, they will pay for their own food,” she said. “If there’s not enough money, that’s when they lean on food assistance network.”
More families who otherwise would be able to pay are leaning on Arlington Public Schools for meals, too, says Amy Maclosky, the director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services for APS.
“Student meal debt has increased a lot this year and it has increased for paying students,” Maclosky said. “Every student is entitled to a free breakfast and lunch, whether they have the funds or not, but they do incur debt. Our debt is up $300,000 right now among people who do not qualify for free or reduced but aren’t able to pay.”
The rising need for food assistance needs comes as Arlington County is preparing to launch this month a Food Security Coalition tasked with implementing some two dozen strategies for tackling hunger.
Food insecurity affects about 7% of Arlington residents — 16,670 people — says Hopkins. It disproportionately affects people of color: 53% and 20% of AFAC clients are Hispanic or Latino and Black, respectively, while comprising 16% and 9% of the county’s population.
Food insecurity can mean “‘I’m worried that my food will run out before I have enough money to get more,’ to ‘I have zero food in my house,” Hopkins said. “We know there are people on both ends of that spectrum in Arlington and people journey that spectrum all the time.” Read More
The Arlington Food Assistance Center is preparing for its largest single-day food drive.
As food prices continue to rise across the country, Scouting for Food — an annual event held in partnership with local Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs — has taken on new urgency.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, Boy Scouts will go door to door and distribute bags to houses in the county so that residents can gather non-perishable food inside of them. The scouts return the following Saturday to collect the donations and bring them to Savior Lutheran Church, to be sorted by volunteers.
The food is then delivered to AFAC, where additional volunteers prepare it for distribution.
The drive has collected over 1 million pounds of food since 1995, and AFAC CEO Charles Meng says in recent years it has brought in upwards of 55,000 pounds of donations.
“And that’s desperately needed by the families who come to us,” he said.
Even in one of the wealthiest counties in the country, thousands of families are dealing with food insecurity.
The Arlington Food Assistance Center distributes food six days a week at its 2708 S. Nelson Street location. Meng says there has been a sharp increase in need since January and the center currently serves around 2,500 families, or roughly 8,000 individuals. He says a third of them are children.
“At this time of the year, we’re normally serving closer to 2,000 families a week, but we were up to 2,468 families last week, and that’s been increasing at about 25 to 30 families a week,” he said, adding that if the trend continues for a few more weeks, the demand will exceed the peak of the pandemic.
AFAC pays for 60% of the food it distributes, and higher food prices and increased demand are just two reasons Meng says this event is essential to the center.
“More families are coming to us, and so we need more food to give to them, which means we’re buying more, but we’re also buying it at a far higher price.”
He says the center is somewhat unusual because it purchases food to give away, whereas most food pantries only donate food given to them.
“So the Boy Scout food drive, being a national effort, really helps everyone throughout this country, and especially those food pantries that really don’t have the resources to purchase food,” he said.
The Arlington Food Assistance Center also holds food drives in various locations across the county, including at Arlington public libraries. Meng says the drives are critical as the holiday season approaches.
“During the holidays, it’s really important,” said Meng. “It’s one of the best ways to get the kind of food that our families like and will eat.”
Man Accidentally Shoots Self in Crystal City — “300 block of 23rd Street S. At approximately 7:45 p.m. on June 15, police were dispatched to the report of a discharge of a firearm. Upon arrival, it was determined that as the male subject was cleaning his firearm, it discharged resulting in a gunshot wound to his hand… No other injuries or property damage have been reported.” [ACPD]
Home Hunters Keep Housing Hot — “The regional and national real-estate markets may be cooling, but Arlington remains atop the pack in the Washington area when it comes to maintaining home-buyer interest. The county was the highest-scoring among 10 jurisdictions in the latest monthly Bright MLS T3 Home Demand Index.” [Sun Gazette]
More Motorist Mayhem on I-395 — From Dave Statter: “#caughtoncamera: Another 8C crash. This one at 5:50 this morning. It’s pretty much like all the other ones.” [Twitter]
More Permitting Now Online — “Arlington County is launching the third phase of Permit Arlington, its online permitting system, on Tuesday, June 28. Several additional permits and inspections will move into the Permit Arlington system.” [Arlington County]
AFAC Expanding Service — “The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) is partnering with Homestretch, a nonprofit organization located in Falls Church, to provide free nutritious groceries to recently housed families on the path towards self-sufficiency. The new food distribution center will plan to operate weekly and will be AFAC’s first center serving residents outside of Arlington County.” [AFAC]
Cops Seeking Thief in ‘Space Jam’ Hat — “A man wearing a Bugs Bunny ‘Space Jam’ baseball cap is wanted for grand larceny by the City of Falls Church Police and other Northern Virginia jurisdictions. The man was captured on surveillance video by City of Falls Church businesses in February and June while stealing cash in two restaurants.” [City of Falls Church]
It’s Friday — Sunny and humid throughout the day. High of 90 and low of 75. Sunrise at 5:44 am and sunset at 8:37 pm. [Weather.gov]
The Arlington County Police Department is holding its third annual “Fill the Cruiser” drive later this week.
On Friday (May 20) from 4-6 p.m., police cruisers will be stationed at the Giant store on 2901 S. Glebe Road in Long Branch Creek and at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center on 5335 Langston Blvd to collect non-perishable food items and diapers of all sizes.
FRIDAY: Join ACPD during the 3rd Annual Fill the Cruiser drive in support of @AFACfeeds and @DoorwaysVA. This year, in addition to non-perishable food items, officers will also be collecting diapers of all sizes.
Event details: https://t.co/4Ug9KCvgvN pic.twitter.com/QnulmEgz3g— ArlingtonCountyPD (@ArlingtonVaPD) May 17, 2022
Those items will be donated to local nonprofits Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) and Doorways.
While the cruisers and AFAC will accept most unopened, unexpired, and unprepared foods, including some perishable items, the organization is most in need of food that’s low in sodium, fat, and sugar.
Items like:
- Low sodium canned tomatoes
- Low sodium canned tuna
- Low sodium canned soups
- Canned vegetables
- Peanut butter (in plastic jars)
- Low sugar cereal
- Cooking oils
The hope is still to collect “a couple thousand pounds of food,’ says AFAC’s Associate Director of Communications Jeremiah Huston, with Arlington residents still very much in need.
When a “Fill the Cruiser” food drive took place earlier in the pandemic in 2020, the number of Arlington families in need of food assistance was record-breakingly high. That year, AFAC was serving upwards of 3,400 families a month.
AFAC is still serving more than 3,000 families every month, 80% of whom rely on free grocery every week, notes Huston.
“We’re not far from the record high numbers we saw in 2020 and we expect the number of families served will continue to rise steadily as it has since the start of the new year,” Huston tells ARLnow. “With the increase in gas and food prices, we have seen many of our families accessing AFAC services more frequently. Those already struggling to pay their bills are the ones hit hardest by inflation and supply chain shortages.”
Huston also said that inflation and high food prices are impacting AFAC’s ability to purchase fresh foods, so donations are needed now as much or more than prior years.
Arlington Is Getting an Eruv — “Two ritual enclosures that allow Shabbat-observant Jews to carry items beyond their homes are nearing completion in Northern Virginia. Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown is expanding its eruv, or ritual enclosure, into Arlington. Rabbi Hyim Shafner said the completed eruv will enclose Congregation Etz Hayim, Chabad Lubavitch of Alexandria-Arlington and Kol Ami: Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community, as well as Arlington National Cemetery and The Pentagon.” [Washington Jewish Week]
County Leaders Reject ‘Defund’ Call — “At the Nov. 13 Arlington County Board meeting, speaker Evangelia Riris called on elected officials to eradicate much or all of the police department and sheriff’s office, rerouting the $119 million in annual funding to other uses. ‘We could put the money into social services that would provide a more meaningful effect onto people’s lives,’ said Riris… Arlington board members and County Manager Mark Schwartz said, in effect, thanks but no thanks.” [Sun Gazette]
Activists Want New Tree Study — “Activists are continuing to press their effort to get the Arlington County government to initiate another study of tree canopy in Arlington, but seem at best to be receiving a lukewarm response. ‘There are surplus funds available” to conduct a new study,’ said Mary Glass of the Arlington Tree Action Group, who wants the county government to move beyond a 2016 study that showed a largely stable canopy of trees in the county.” [Sun Gazette]
HQ2 Honcho Meets Governor-Elect — From Amazon’s Brian Huseman: “As part of the Team Virginia econ development effort, today I met with Governor-elect @GlennYoungkin about his vision for Virginia. He will be a great leader for VA and Amazon looks forward to working with him as we invest & grow across the Commonwealth and in our Arlington #HQ2.” [Twitter]
Fill the Cruiser Tonight — “Our next Fill the Cruiser event is [Wednesday] evening at Lee-Harrison Shopping Center (2425 N. Harrison Street)! Help us brighten the holidays for children in need and Stop by from 5-7 p.m. to donate new, unwrapped toys for kids aged newborn-17.” [Twitter]
Inflation Hits Local Food Bank — “All this week, @AFACfeeds is giving free turkeys to families in need ahead of Thanksgiving. Last year, the nonprofit spent $37,000 on about 2200 turkeys. This year? That same order cost them $47,000.” [Twitter, WJLA]
Road Closures for Weekend 5K — “The 7th Annual Jennifer Bush-Lawson Memorial 5k & Family Fun Day will take place on Saturday, November 20th, 2021. The Arlington County Police Department will conduct the following road closures from approximately 8:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in order to accommodate the event.” [ACPD]
It’s Wednesday — Today will be mostly sunny and warmer, with a high near 66. Sunrise at 6:53 a.m. and sunset at 4:52 p.m. Tomorrow will start off sunny and warm, with a high near 72, before rain moves in later in the afternoon and evening. Wind gusts as high as 26 mph on Thursday. [Weather.gov]
It took Maywood resident Stephen Young nearly 19 months, 92 rides, and more than 1,000 miles to bike every street in Arlington. He finally finished the goal Saturday morning in front of family and friends in Cherrydale.
“And I thought it would take six to nine months,” 58-year-old Young tells ARLnow, chuckling.
Of course, challenges arose: a broken finger, confusing street signs, hills, dead ends, and a seemingly endless supply of cul-de-sacs.
“All of the dead ends, all of the cul-de-sacs,” Young says. “And we have lots of cul-de-sacs in Arlington.”
It all began in May 2020, when he was getting a bit restless like many people during the pandemic. Young has always been an avid biker and came up with the idea to bike every street in Arlington as a way to get outside, get exercise, and help others in need.
Originally, the plan was to use the project to fundraise solely for the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) and help provide food assistance for those struggling. But then the police killing of George Floyd happened and Young shifted gears to also support the Black Swan Academy, a D.C.-based non-profit that empowers Black youth through civic engagement and leadership.
“I actually launched it in honor of Juneteenth and went from there,” he says.
Over the next year and a half, once or twice a week, Young jumped on his bike and hit up Arlington’s street. He made sure that each ride lasted only about an hour.
Young biked short streets, long streets, flat streets, and hilly streets.
“One of the good challenges was the hills. There are actually a lot of hills in Arlington,” he says, mentioning the so-called “Superman Hill” along S. Walter Reed Drive, near Four Mile Run Drive.
He was sometimes joined by family, friends, and, once, Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti. But Young mostly biked alone. He often posted his exploits on social media, as well as GoPro videos on YouTube of a number of rides (he plans to post all of them in the near future).
All in all, he didn’t have any major problems, besides it just taking longer than he initially thought. For example, Young found that he had to double or, even, triple back often, to hit every street.
“You can’t just get to every block without going around things at least twice,” he notes.
This caused him to bike about 1,000 miles, which is significantly more miles than paved Arlington roadways (of which, there 376 miles of county-maintained roadways, a number that doesn’t include state or federally-maintained roads).
Young only fell once during 19-month odyssey. While turning onto one of Arlington’s many cul-de-sacs, he hit a rock. The crash was very minor, he says. At one point he broke a finger in a non-cycling related incident, which prevented him from riding for several months.
Besides the many hills and cul-de-sacs, another thing he discovered while biking every corner of Arlington is that road signs are sometimes inaccurate.
“One of the most interesting things… is how often the signs that day ‘dead end’ or ‘no outlet’ are wrong,” he said.
He theorizes this is likely to prevent motor vehicles from cutting through the neighborhood to get to a major roadway.
‘Kindness Yard Sale’ in Penrose — “Susan Thompson-Gaines wants to spread kindness. This weekend, she’s doing it through a big yard sale at her house. She says it’s hard to miss the home she shares with her husband, David — it’s the yellow house with purple trim at the corner of South Second and South Fillmore streets in Arlington… what makes this yard sale different is that the proceeds are all spent on acts of kindness.” [WTOP]
Flood Cleanup for Pike Businesses — From WUSA 9’s Matthew Torres: “A dental hygienist sent me this other video of the flash flooding in Columbia Pike in Arlington. Their business had to close today as they clean up the water that seeped through. Other businesses are having to do the same thing.” [Twitter]
More Vaccinations Added to State Stats — “Today, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has incorporated vaccination data from jurisdictions in Maryland. Virginians who received vaccinations in Maryland that were not reported through the Virginia Immunization Information System are now included in the locality and statewide dashboards. The updated data reflects an increase in COVID-19 vaccine first dose rates of 0.33% Alexandria, 0.46% Arlington, and 0.39% Eastern Shore.” [Virginia Dept. of Health]
AFAC Gets Donation from Library Program –“Representatives of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library (FOAL), together with the Arlington Public Library and Arlington County Department of Technology Services, presented a check for $4,525 to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). The donation represents the number of Library readers who successfully completed the 2021 Summer Reading Challenge. The Library’s popular Summer Reading program helps children avoid the ‘summer slide.'” [Arlington County]
Fmr. County Board Member Dies — “Jay Edwin Ricks, 88, passed away at home in Arlington, Virginia on July 18, 2021 due to complications of Parkinson’s Disease… In 1967, Jay was elected to the Arlington County Board where he served until 1971. During this time, he was active in transportation issues and Vice Chairman of Metro during the critical phase of planning the Metro system.” [Legacy]
Local Church Adapts to Pandemic — ‘As another wave of the pandemic comes at us, we are different as a congregation,’ said the Rev. Amanda Poppei, senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia… Poppei’s congregation began hosting outdoor events in spring 2021, including a handbell parade to ring in Pride Month in June and a Flower Communion in May, which they intentionally designed as a multiplatform event.” [UUWorld]
