
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997          TAG: 9702250031

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO FLAVOR 

                                            LENGTH:  172 lines

INVESTING IN THE FOODBANK THE FOOD SALVAGE OPERATION WORKS TO DEVELOP LASTING SOLUTIONS TO THE HUNGER PROBLEM.

SARAH MARTIN, a counselor by profession, is playing chef. For the 10 women gathered for lunch in the kitchen of a Grandy Village apartment in Norfolk, Martin, who works for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, stuffs pasta shells with a blend of ricotta cheese and vegetables.

She is the teacher too, answering questions from the public-housing residents who are taking part in the ``super pantry program'' class sponsored by Foodbank. The goal of the six 4 1/2-hour workshops: to teach skills that can ease the way for women in tough life situations.

There's more on the menu than stuffed shells. This January day, a sewing lesson and a game of food-pyramid bingo preceded lunch. And most of the other workshops feature talks by professionals on everything from dressing for a job interview to cooking for a diabetic.

The program demonstrates one more way Foodbank has extended its long and loving arm into the community. While canned-good drives and fund-raisers have been the familiar staples of the 16-year-old food-rescue operation, the thrust in the last few years has been to develop lasting solutions to the hunger problem.

``We are looking for ways to teach self-sufficiency,'' said Martin, Foodbank's director of program services.

Like the other 186 food banks throughout the country, the local operation, headquartered in a 27,000-square-foot warehouse on Granby Street in Norfolk, retrieves food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it to those in need. More than 300 member agencies such as churches and community groups work with the nonprofit clearinghouse to channel restaurant leftovers, surplus harvests, slightly damaged goods and mislabeled products from food retailers and wholesalers to the hungry in the five South Hampton Roads cities and in Franklin-Southampton, Northampton, Accomack and Isle of Wight counties.

Food bank funding comes from the United Way, donations, fund-raisers and government grants. In addition, member agencies pay 14 cents per pound of food but must give it to the needy for free.

Soup kitchens and emergency food programs are two traditional methods of getting food to the hungry. The local ``super pantry program,'' based on one developed in Philadelphia in 1987, is new here this winter. It reflects a nationwide trend in food banking.

More and more food banks are tackling the bigger problem of poverty, according to Christine Vladimiroff, president and CEO of Second Harvest, the national food bank network based in Chicago. She will be in Norfolk for the conference of eastern region food banks that begins tomorrow.

``This is a new piece of the puzzle,'' said Vladimiroff, a Benedictine nun. ``Food banks are supporting agencies that do literacy training, teach job skills and help people get a GED. They are becoming community centers for problem solving.''

In 1994 the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia merged with SHARE (Self-Help and Resource Exchange) Mid-Atlantic, the nationwide program that rewards participants for community service with discounted groceries.

``Joining with SHARE moved us forward in our mission to find permanent solutions to hunger,'' said Martin.

Norfolk's Foodbank has a lot on its plate. It manages Justine's Clothesbank, a thrift store that makes recycyled clothing and other goods available to the needy. It shares its meeting space and equipment with other agencies. It provides training and jobs to recipients of public assistance, works with SEVAMP's senior employment program and often impacts legislation on poverty issues.

In the words of Cynthia S. Creede, who has headed Foodbank since it opened in March 1981: ``We are like glue in the community. We are a better community organization because we stretch a little beynd our lines.''

But the primary mission has remained the same through the years: to get food to those who need it - the homeless, the working poor, the elderly, school children, whoever is without. In its first year 400,000 pounds of food was recovered and distributed. Last year the total was nearly 7 million pounds.

Thirty million Americans, including 12 million children, risk hunger, defined by the Federation of Virginia Food Banks as ``a recurrent, involuntary lack of access to food that may produce malnutrition over time.'' Hunger seriously affects 170,000 people in greater Hampton Roads daily.

``I think the public is appalled at the idea of anyone going hungry in this community,'' said Creede, executive director.

Single mother Heidi Hayward of Virginia Beach is. She shows her 8-year-old daughter Heather pictures of malnourished children to impress upon her ``that not every child has a good meal every day.'' The two began volunteering for Foodbank last year, said Hayward, ``to show Heather that there are things we can do to help out.'' They staff the tables at canned-good drives and pack groceries for the SHARE program.

``We don't have much ourselves,'' said Hayward, ``but volunteering doesn't cost us anything but love.''

They belong to a pool of 1,000 volunteers who work for Foodbank, which has a paid staff of 27.

``We have individuals and families who come help regularly,'' said Barbara Mann, director of community involvement. ``And groups from corporations, churches, schools and the military. And we could always use more.''

At the warehouse, which houses fresh, canned, refrigerated and frozen goods, volunteers inspect incoming food, discarding what's inedible. They take inventory, pack emergency boxes, clean, answer phones, do office work. They might also drive trucks of food to drop-off sites and pick up donated food from restaurants and supermarkets.

``It's such a nice atmosphere,'' said Shirley Martin, a Grandy Village resident who volunteers at Foodbank weekly. The mother of seven grown children says that now it's her time to give back.

``The people who work there and the people who volunteer are like a big family.''

Food drives and fund-raisers like the Ghent Art Explosure, which is an annual May art show, and Taste of Hampton Roads, a restaurant food tasting set for April 2 this year, are other ways volunteers give their time.

The community is also generous in donating the food, money and other resources that nourish the operation, Creede said.

``One of Foodbank's strongest appeals is that everybody in the food industry is appalled by waste,'' she said.

Especially Kathy Milonas, vice president of the four Captain George's seafood restaurants in Hampton Roads.

``A buffet restaurant like ours has much more waste than a dining-off-the-menu restaurant,'' said Milonas, who is a member of Foodbank's board of directors. ``So we freeze the leftovers at the end of the night and Foodbank picks them up at least once a week. Once we had a whole fresh strawberry shortcake left so we called right then and said, come get it.''

Since 1980, Virginia has had in place a Good Samaritan law like the federal one that passed in October. These laws protect donors from liability for food donated in good faith, making businesses more willing to pass along surplus. Local hospitality and grocery businesses donate about 78 percent of Foodbank's food supply; the rest comes from national companies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Hannaford Food and Drug at Ward's Corner in Norfolk gives produce and bakery items daily. In addition, the store makes monetary contributions to Foodbank and encourages employees to volunteer in the SHARE program.

``We feel it's important for us to work in the community we live in,'' said Pete Bonneau, store director and a Foodbank board member.

Mike Hall, owner and chef of the Bienville Grill in Norfolk, regularly donates food to Foodbank benefits.

``When you're in the restaurant business, there's nothing more relevant than preparing food for hungry people,'' said Hall. ``This is an easy fit.''

Community groups and professionals have found other ways to make a fit with Foodbank.

Workers from Norfolk's Louise W. Eggleston Center for developmentally delayed adults harvested 300 pounds of produce for Foodbank from their garden at the Virginia Zoo last year. Grants from UPS and the Virginia Beach Foundation bought freezers and other equipment and funded food-safety classes for Foodbank and partner-agency workers. The Tidewater Chefs Association contributes to Foodbank's Milk Money Fund, which supplies about $20,000 annually in milk, juice and formula to shelters and Head Start classrooms.

But according to Creede, ``Our greatest success stories are our personal relationships - like when we hire a mom who gets public assistance and she becomes successful on her own.'' MEMO: Mary Flachsenhaar is a free-lance writer in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

HUY NGUYEN

The Virginian-Pilot

At the Norfolk headquarters of the Foodbank of Southeastern

Virginia, Stanley Batten, left, and George Harrison unload a bread

delivery from Mary Jane Bakery.

At the Foodbank, shoppers from local organizations fill

organizations fill their carts with foodstuffs.

WAYS TO HELP

Volunteer to work at the Foodbank warehouse or for one of the

food-distribution agencies that work with it. Or work at any of the

dozens of fundraisers and projects held annually. Call Barbara Mann,

Foodbank's director of community involvement at 624-1333.