100 WWC NoVa COVID-19 Relief Fund

Second Story transforms the lives of children, youth and their families by providing safe havens and opportunities for them to grow and thrive. Their programs programs provide support at critical turning points in their lives.

Second Story’s long-term residential housing for homeless young mothers and homeless young adults are open. However, the vast majority of their clients in these programs have been furloughed from their jobs and Second Story is supporting a larger portion of rent than they are used to, putting a larger financial burden on them. Additionally, their Family Resource Centers are working to make food distributions to neighborhoods they serve. Funds raised will be sued to offset costs affiliated with these two programs.

During COVID-10, funding for grocery gift cards and rent/utility assistance is most needed. Britepaths helps approximately 7,000 families a year and that includes 388 unduplicated clients along with their family members of 985 people who are served by Britepaths' Stability services, emergency and short-term food assistance and financial assistance grants. Due to stay at home orders, workers are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet and worry about rent and utility payments. In addition to the regular clients that they normally budget for, Britepaths will serve as many clients as they can with food and financial assistance using additional funds raised through this Showcase Fund.

In preparation for the shutdown, Britepaths proactively sent $50 gift cards and extended an offer to come to our emergency pantry and pick up extra supplies to the clients to whom they provide regular grocery delivery. They closed their emergency pantry on March 18. Britepaths is still sending grocery gift cards every 2 weeks to those clients and continue to receive emergency food referrals. Their emergency food assistance generally serves 6-8 clients a month, but they are now receiving 5-6 referrals from social workers DAILY, all as a result of job loss. Since the pantry is shut down, clients are sent grocery gift cards. Each family is given $150 per client plus an additional $25 per child. Their Financial Assistance program continues to assist clients with rent, utilities and other needs, but has raised the assistance amount from $300 to $500 per family. With grant assistance, each $1,000 will support a family to pay their rent and cover groceries for 2-3 families.

Koinonia Foundation provides emergency and monthly food, seasonal clothing, and financial assistance for rent/mortgage, utilities, and prescription medications. Many of their clients work as seasonal workers, gig workers (Uber and Lyft drivers, Amazon warehouse workers), home health aides, retail service workers, house cleaners, and food service workers. Most are paid low wages and must live from pay check to pay check under normal conditions. Others are physically, mentally, or emotionally disabled or elderly persons who live on fixed incomes.

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and stay at home order, they have seen a rise in the demand for food and financial assistance for rent/mortgage payments and utilities. Specifically, an increase in households served of 43% and in individuals served of 55%. They are struggling to assist everyone and have 11 pending requests for financial assistance that have not been fulfilled yet as of this writing. Funds raised through this Showcase Fund will support their efforts.

Langley Residential Support Services provides supported living, support services and training to individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families in the Fairfax County, Virginia community.

They are asking for funds to buy extra supplies (games, crafting supplies, etc.), and so they can conduct additional staff training and ensure compliance with not only new organizational policies, but also recent government requirements to ensure everyone's health and safety. Some of the women and men they serve are temporarily without employment at this time due to work stoppages and they have increased needs for staffing, food and supplies since residents are at home more now.

At Loudoun Hunger Relief, everything about the way they operate has been changed by the COVID-19 crisis. They have had to modify all their operational systems to accommodate the increase in service demand and the decrease in volunteer labor, along with the need for social distancing. They have also had to shift their supply chain from grocery store food rescue donations to bulk food orders from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Sysco Systems, US Foods and others.

Their at-pantry service numbers are up from about 250 families a week to about 540 families last week, and each family is leaving the pantry with about 10 pounds of food for each member of their family.

In addition, they are providing emergency food kits to several distribution partners to ensure the food is reaching the most vulnerable populations. Our partners include LCPS, InMed, Women Giving Back, Catholic Charities, St. Gabriel’s Church, and others. Since mid-March, they have pushed out almost 80,000 pounds of food in emergency kits given to other agencies to distribute.

Their supply chain is completely different, and they have had to pivot overnight to sourcing food like a grocery store, but with none of the sophisticated inventory management software. Since they have established new supply sources over the last several weeks, if something is available within the supply chain, they have a path to source it. Just maybe not the money. Dollars help the most, and fund raised through this Showcase Fund will help them move forward.

Since COVID-19, no two days are the same and balancing the needs of so many seniors is challenging. Shepherd's Center has responded to the need of food with a new service- Food Delivery Drivers. These drivers pickup groceries ordered online or shop for and deliver food to leave at the front door. No face-to-face contact is made.

Unfortunately, many seniors they serve are unable to afford to “stock up" on groceries for more than a week at a time. In many cases, drivers have been opening their own wallet to pay. Shepherd's Center is looking to alleviate this situation by securing funding to purchase $250 worth of Giant Foods Gift Cards to give to their volunteer drivers in order to shop and pay for the food their seniors are unable to pay. Funds secured through this Showcase Fund will be used towards this purpose.