Partnering with Purpose to Address Child Hunger in the

Shenandoah Valley
Emma Ruby, Campus Compact AmeriCorps Member Serving at Blue Ridge Area Food Bank

Context Good Food School Market Neighborhood Produce Markets

The goal of this VISTA project is to enhance overall ● Background: The Good Food School Market is a privately funded child nutrition program that ● Background: The Neighborhood Produce Market is a
community capacity to address food insecurity by partnership between Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and
brings fresh produce into high schools and seeks to reduce the stigma of visiting a food pantry James Madison University’s Gus Bus to bring fresh
strengthening an inter-organizational collaborative
produce into culturally diverse, low income neighborhoods
network, enhancing existing programs’ integrity and in Harrisonburg, VA
reach, and building infrastructure to pilot food programs
in regional public schools in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
● Host site mission: Blue Ridge Area Food Bank serves 25
counties and 8 cities through four distribution centers and ● Harrisonburg High School (Harrisonburg, ● Broadway High School (Rockingham
our network of more than 200 food pantries, schools, and VA) County, VA)
other nonprofit organizations. ○ Impact of COVID: Program model was ○ Impact of COVID: Broadway’s market ● Impact of COVID: We changed from a pick up, drive thru,
● Capacity Building Need: adapted from an open air client-choice launched in March 2020, serving 40 and now mobile distribution over the last 11 months. With
○ Good Food School Market: After receiving $100,000 in market to a drive thru, pre-packed families in a pick up model. The program a mobile neighborhood model being a large part of the
grant funding from Perdue Foods, the Food Bank knew it program in conjunction with the public transitioned to a brick and mortar pantry program goals, we struggled with low participation from
needed a dedicated staffer to pilot the program for the school’s extended Summer Feeding with delivery offered in October 2020. July-February.
first three years. Program ○ Growth: ● Growth & Sustainability:
○ Neighborhood Produce Market: As the program grew, ○ Growth: ■ Established student & staff ○ Increased participation from 25 in October to 282 in
the Food Bank realized they needed more capacity to be ■ Volunteer network: retained a group engagement April
equitable and serve populations through nutrition of 5 consistent and dedicated ○ Partnered with local school district
education, recruiting volunteers, and retaining a group of volunteers ○ Tracked program progress and recorded best practices
translators. ■ Grew partnership with public schools ● No Kid Hungry Meal Kit Pilot: launched April 2021 in
● Community Need: ■ Participation partnership with Neighborhood Produce Markets
○ 72% of Harrisonburg school students & 41% of ● Coordinated two school break ○ Received $15,341 in grant funding from No Kid Hungry
Rockingham County school students qualify for Free and distributions across Harrisonburg ○ Projected to serve 1800 families from April-September
Reduced Lunch Public Schools serving 1000 2021
students each ■ Participation increased by 186%
○ Diverse population: Of 1800 Harrisonburg HS students,
56 languages are spoken Other Capacity Building Efforts
● Harrisonburg City Public Schools Backpack
Coalition
○ Convened local parents, school staff, and service
providers to create centralized backpack coalition
○ Streamlined fundraising and operational practices
● Recipe Distribution through Food Pantry Network
○ Worked with Partner Engagement Managers to
create visually appealing, affordable nutrition
Reflections education materials for unfamiliar produce items
○ Secured printing donation from local shop
● Sustainability Efforts: ● Sustainability Efforts: ● Winchester Good Food School Market
● Recommendations:
○ Recorded best practices for ordering, ○ Staff was trained on placing food ○ Began conversations with a possible
○ Overcommunicate with partners
delivering, and coordinating with orders, reporting data, and food third Good Food School Market partner
○ Amplify student voices and engage with them as
partners safety that were paused due to COVID
COVID allows
○ Started evaluation process third ○ Created community buy-in by ● Partner Engagement and Programs Team
○ Add nutrition education back in as COVID allows
VISTA will carry on speaking to staff, classes, and ○ Worked cross departmentally on a photo
● Challenges: changing program models to adapt to
○ Established a consistent volunteer student clubs about the program storage standard operating procedure
COVID, working remotely across several departments on
pool and trained volunteers on how ○ Staff recruit and retain their own ○ Researched multilingual helpline and began initial
projects, limited time in the field during early service due to
to run the market volunteers conversations across departments
COVID