1 of 2
2 of 2
Cindy Balderson, Vice President & Director of Development and Mark Kleinshmidt, President & CEO.
Touching the lives of one out of every six people in your community every month by meeting a critical need of hunger is impressive.
But the leadership of Healthy Harvest Food Bank isn’t satisfied with just meeting needs. Their vision for the communities they serve—the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula counties ofLancaster, Richmond, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Middlesex and Essex—encompasses meeting immediate hunger needs and a long-term vision of changing people’s lives, beginning with schoolchildren who learn about healthy eating and “living off the land.”
Previously the Northern Neck Food Bank, the staff and board of directors changed its name in 2018 to HealthyHarvest Food Bank to reflect the evolving focus and standards of the organization, said President and CEO Mark Kleinschmidt.
Earlier this year, Healthy Harvest Food Bank announced a $2.2 million capital campaign to build a 13,000-square-foot facility in Warsaw to expand its reach. The building’s completion is expected by this fall. Already the organization has secured $1.2 million in donations. Kleinschmidt said Healthy Harvest Food Bank has been working on the capital campaign for more than 1-1/2 years.
“The vision was to create a building that would allow usto work effectively and efficiently with the size of our current operation and allow room for expansion if it was ever needed,” Kleinschmidt said.
Healthy Harvest Food Bank serves 12,765 “unduplicated” individuals each month through its partner pantries, backpack buddies’ program and partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Neck, the Northern Neck-Middlesex Free Health Clinic and the Ledwith-Lewis Free Clinic, said Vice President and Development Director Cindy Balderson.
People are served through 25 partner agencies, whichare primarily churches, across the region, she said. The organization has 1,234 active volunteers who pitch indoing everything from fundraising mailing, gleaning, sorting non-perishable food items and helping out at events.
Balderson cited Art Cox and Louis Kemp as “exceptional volunteers” who spend 350-400 hours a year sorting non-perishables.
Healthy Harvest Food Bank supplies food to more than 60,000 people annually. Balderson said the concept is simple.
“Farmers donate food, volunteers work, donors provide funds for transportation, Healthy Harvest Food Bank collects and delivers the food, and our partner pantries distribute the food to clients in their time of need,” she said.
“We have several farmers that grow crops specifically for us to glean or harvest and we have others who allow us to pick those crops that are not used for retail sales,” Balderson said. “In addition, many local gardeners donate produce. We received over half a million pounds of gleaned or donated produce in the last harvesting season.”
For every $1,000 the organization receives, Balderson said, it can provide more than 11,000 pounds of food to 1,275children, seniors or working parents struggling with hunger.
In addition to the capital campaign for the new building, Healthy Harvest Food Bank has under-taken two recent initiatives to change lifestyles. The first is called “FoodPharmacy” and entails offering fresh produce, nutrition education and support to empower individuals who struggle with health-related dietary conditions, Balderson said.
The program will be held three times per year, with the class meeting two hours per week for eight weeks. Up to 16 people can participate per class.
“The program targets individuals who struggle wit hobesity, diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension and other health-related issues,” Balderson said. “The goal is to transform patient wellness by offering fresh produce, nutrition education, and hands-on cooking classes to teach them healthy eating and living as a way of combating their disease.”
Another initiative is called “Healthy Harvest Fresh” and involves aquaponics. In the new facility, staff plan to work in partnership with area schools by educating and empowering children to live better, healthier lives through a state-of-the-art aquaponics greenhouse. The idea is to teach future generations a sustainable method of raising fish and vegetables together in one integrated system, Balderson said. “Healthy Harvest Fresh is a cutting-edge aquaponics educational program designed to expand a student’s knowledge of plant science, nitrification, biology and fish anatomy, as well as nutrition and high-tech agriculture,” Balderson said. “The hands-on approach for students will instill a sense of responsibility and inspire creativity and excitement as they learn about healthy eating and sustainable production of healthy proteins and fresh produce.”
Kleinschmidt said it shows Healthy Harvest Food Bank is focused on offering more education-based programs to help change people’s lives.
“We want our clients to have better lifestyles and we want to help them get the right resources to succeed in life,” he said. “I’m excited that with all the challenges we face we are still able to help people every single day. I’m also excited that with the new building we will be able to offer more programs that will change thousands of lives. The aquaponics center will allow us to reach kids at a young age and teach them about eating healthy and living off the land, so to speak. Healthy Food Pharmacy allows us to help people change their eating habits and it will help them live longer healthier lives. I think with all the programs we have that are about to start we will start to see people’s perspective change about what a food bank is and what a food bank can do.”
The organization’s future goal is to expand the Healthy Food Pharmacy program in other counties, have a backpack buddy program in every school of every county they serve and have a classroom aquaponics system in every school in the next few years, Kleinschmidt said.
“I love that every day I get to help someone and every month I help thousands,” he said. “It’s hard to put a price tag on being able to leave any job and feel like you made a difference every day. The best part is I don’t get that feeling just occasionally, I get that feeling every day.”
Healthy Harvest Food Bank gleaning occurs in the fields of a network of about 20 farmers scattered across the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.
hhfb.org · 804-577-0246