Feeding Henricoans in need

Near what would become the end of a rewarding career at Feed More, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Sudeshna Das-Menezes found herself fielding numerous calls from people looking for help.

“I worked at Feed More for 16 years, I built the volunteer program, backpack program, hunger hotline, I was attuned to hunger and food insecurity,” she said. “I got a lot of people calling me to get resources, and everything had shut down. It was really tough.”

She began researching food insecurity within Henrico County specifically, then reached out to the county itself and received support from key officials. Her research showed that at the time, there was a food insecurity rate in the county of more than 9%, which equated to more than 30,000 people.

“No ZIP code [is] free from hunger,” she said. “I knew it was something that needed to be done, and I [knew] exactly what I needed."

What resulted from those initial efforts was the Henrico Community Food Bank, a nonprofit that Das-Menezes founded along with her husband, Floyd. Since the organization’s founding, it has helped feed 172 households in the county.

“We had to start everything from the ground, getting it incorporated, getting 501 [nonprofit] status,” she recalled. “Our goal is to build Henrico’s food bank. Lots of pantries do incredible work, but we wanted to really give Henrico County its own food bank."

The food bank currently works as a “mobile model,” with the organization making deliveries directly to homes, instead of those in need coming to a central location.

“With real estate price hikes, spending money on rent didn't sit well with me,” Das-Menezes said. “I wanted to make sure we were creating more of an impact than putting that towards rent. We took time to really evaluate what we wanted to do and how to do it.”

Das-Menezes has a variety of goals for the organization’s future. The top one: ensuring that food is accessible and equitable.

The food pantry isn’t limited to a particular ZIP code but operates all throughout Henrico County, which has more than 15 ZIP codes.

“We knew making deliveries was the way to go, that way we were meeting our households where they were, which was truly meeting our mission," Das-Menezes said. “I hope people in the county see it as something they can be a part of. I want people to see it as something that we all can grow together, as it truly is a community effort."

Sanhita Lahiri, chair of the organization’s board of directors and a friend of the Das-Menezes family, has been part of the journey from the very beginning. She too formerly volunteered at Feed More and learned of the challenges in Henrico firsthand.

“There is a lot of need in Henrico County,” she said. “We have wealthier neighborhoods, but amazingly we do have intense nutrition needs in a lot of areas.”

Lahiriri’s position consists primarily of logistics and paperwork.

“I look at who we are serving, how many, and we have to stay on our feet, constantly write grants, use them the way they’re meant to be used,” she said of her duties. “We have periodic distributions, such as pairing up with schools every few months but also daily distributions.”

She hopes that volunteers will come out and help, and find inspiration in the efforts of those who are running the organization.

“I work full time as an engineer, so you don’t have to have a background in any of this work, so no matter your background you can come and help,” she said.

The food bank’s primary contact with Henrico County has been Monica Smith-Callahan, the deputy county manager for community affairs. She originally met Das-Menezes while working as the public relations manager at Comcast, when her position ended up sending volunteers to Feed More’s “packathon,” a hunger-relief initiative.

Having been involved since before the food bank’s conception, Smith-Callahan has high hopes for its future.

"My hope is to see them in a large warehouse where community members will be able to come in and shop for culturally appropriate food,” Smith-Callahan said, adding that she hopes the group ultimately will be able to offer a diverse range of culturally-appropriate foods to serve Henrico’s diverse population. “I also want to see others be able to give back. . . If individuals needed the food bank, I hope they can come and give back once [they are] in a better space.”

The Henrico Food Bank soon will be moving into a new building – the former Math Science Innovation Center, located on 2401 Hartman Street in Henrico. Although the building will not be open to the public, the organization’s administrators are looking forward to having a place to house all their food and complete paperwork.