August 2023
Hopewell Residents,
Greetings from the Hopewell Food Pantry. This year marks our 40th year of serving the city of Hopewell. We are very proud of our service and invite you to come by for a tour of our building at 903 West City Point Road. Please call 804-530-3546 to set up a date and time. You can also check us out on our website, www.hopewellfoodpantry.com and on Facebook at Hopewell Food Pantry.
The Hopewell Food Pantry provides food for families and individuals with a 23860-zip code (Hopewell and North Prince George). Any qualified person/family can receive food once per calendar month simply by presenting a picture ID and proof of residency when they come to receive food. An up-to-date driver’s license is sufficient. Other acceptable documents are their lease, current bills like water, electricity, etc. or any official document. It should be noted that if multiple families live together in one household, each monthly visit will be for all the people living at that address. Homeless people can come once per week.
Our hours of operation are:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Opening between 12:30-1:00PM and closing the building by 3:00PM. Depending on the number of cars in line after 2:30, the entry gates may be closed before 3:00 PM.
Last fiscal year we had 13,353 client visits, and this year, ending in June 2023, we served 16,785, a 25% increase. Our total expenses increased from $193M to $229M. While we do receive a lot of food donations, our food costs increased from $100,000 to $130,000. With the higher inflation in our country, each month new families come to us for food. The HFP gives out more food per client than most Central Virginia food pantries are able to do, AND we would like to keep it that way. Also we are one of a few pantries that delivers food to homebound clients. On the government website Hopewell is listed as the third neediest city in Virginia.
This is the first time in at least 20 years we are having a fund drive. Prior to now almost all the financial and food support we needed has come from local churches, foundations, civic organizations, businesses, and individuals. The generosity of Hopewell to us has always sustained us. This year our projected income is likely to fall short by $50,000. The shortfall is a result of an increased client load combined with smaller church congregations, Civic Clubs, and other factors. Our concern is that we may have to reduce the amount of food given out, if our client load continues to grow, and any lost funding cannot be found elsewhere. Also, our Thanksgiving holiday event will be canceled.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Commander
HFP Board of Directors, Chairman
Hopewell Food Pantry is a 501(c)(3) organization.
