Our Daily Bread Board of Directors Member Catherine Read (second from right) and Programs Director Christina Garris (center) receive a grant check from Walmart Market Managers (from left) George Joyner, Leigh Belcher and Rodney Morrison at an award ceremony on May 26 at the Walmart Fredericksburg on Carl D. Silver Parkway. Photo contributed
Fairfax-based nonprofit Our Daily Bread (ODB) received a grant in the amount of $30,000 from the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program. The funds will go to the organization’s Food Bridge Program to provide delivered food assistance to struggling families in the Fairfax County area and help Fairfax County Public Schools that partner with ODB provide weekend packs of food to children in need at their schools.
ODB Board Member Catherine Read and ODB Programs Director Christina Garris, who manages the Food Bridge Program, received the check at an award ceremony on May 26 at the Walmart Fredericksburg on Carl D. Silver Parkway. Six other nonprofits in Northern and Central Virginia also received funds at the ceremony.
Our Daily Bread’s delivered food program has 60 families who reside in Fairfax County enrolled in the program at any given time, and often as many as 12 families on the waiting list to receive services.
The majority of the families have two or more children. While participating in the program, they receive a delivery of food and supplies, grocery store gift cards or a combination of assistance every two weeks for approximately four to six months.
This temporary food assistance is intended to help them maintain financial stability while they work through a crisis and get themselves back to a place where they will be able to provide for themselves.
ODB relies on local faith communities, businesses and civic organizations to deliver the food and/or gift cards to 30 clients each Sunday, but often throughout the year there are gaps in the delivery calendar. A $20,000 portion of the grant from Walmart will help ODB provide grocery gift cards to clients on eight Sundays where there are currently no organizations available to make the deliveries.
The remaining $10,000 of the grant will be distributed to Fairfax County Public Schools that partner with ODB in its Food4Thought Program to provide packs of food to send home with children in need at their schools on Fridays so the children have food on the weekends.
Our Daily Bread’s Executive Director Lisa Whetzel said, “The assistance that the Walmart Foundation is providing will help ease the struggle for many local families for several months, and also help children in need go back to school each week healthy and ready to learn.”
More information is available at www.ODBFairfax.org.