Earlier this week I had the honor of attending my very first Taste of Hampton Roads at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.  This was incredibly exciting to me for two reasons: 1. I love to eat and 2. It’s for a great cause!

The Taste of Hampton Roads event supports the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia which in turn helps those that are struggling with hunger in our community; 390,000 individuals annually to be exact.  It’s really quite amazing what this incredibly selfless organization and its volunteers are doing to help eliminate hunger in OUR community.  To put it simply, here is a visual of how it all works:

While I was earning my psychology degree and interning with an elementary school guidance counselor I had heard about the backpack program, but it wasn’t until I visited the Foodbank last year that I learned just how large that program is here in Hampton Roads.  Our Foodbank serves 49 schools in our area and the Eastern Shore, distributing over 260,000 meals last year alone.  Those numbers are astounding and it’s so amazing to think about what this organization and its volunteers are doing in the lives of families and children just through our school system.  The program works by school personal (angels if you will) identifying children as being food insecure.  Those children are delivered a red backpack filled with food at the end of each school day, before the weekend begins, and before the start of school breaks.  Imagine the relief a single red backpack brings to each child it goes home with. The picture below from the event represents this program, which is just one of many that the Foodbank offers.

This year marked the 25th anniversary for the Taste of Hampton Roads, so kudos to everyone involved with making this such a successful event year after year.  This year’s event had 250 volunteers and 42 restaurants/food vendors. According to their website, last year’s Taste of Hampton Roads raised hundreds of thousands of meals for food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, Kids Cafes®, BackPack Programs, and Mobile Pantries throughout Southeastern Virginia and on the Eastern Shore.  Below are pictures from the 2014 Taste of Hampton Roads.

Sweetwater Cuisine

East Beach Catering

Shockley’s Sweet Shoppe

Chesapeake Bay Catering Co.

Distinctive Gourmet inside the Virginia Beach Convention Center

And of course, some selfies

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