By Annabelle Berry, contributor
When schools close for summer break, Virginia families lose access to the breakfasts and lunches that children receive during the academic year, creating additional financial strain at a time when food costs remain high.
The seasonal shift is expanding need at food banks across the Commonwealth, including the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, where officials say need has reached record levels.
“The demand on the Food Banks and its partners is the highest we’ve ever witnessed in 45 years of food banking,” senior manager of communications and public relations Les Sinclair said.
A 2025 No Kid Hungry Virginia survey found that 55% of respondents reported their household debt increases during the summer because of food costs. The same share said it’s harder to make ends meet during the summer than during the school year.
The impact is evident locally. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank has seen growing demand as families seek support during the summer months.
“Of all new visits in fiscal year 2026, approximately 40% are children,” said Jacob Matz, director of partner engagement. “Harrisonburg and Rockingham are seeing a higher-than-average share of new child guests compared to the network overall.”
Since the beginning of the year, the food bank registered roughly 2,000 new households and about 4,200 new individuals in Harrisonburg and Rockingham, Matz said.
In the first half of its current fiscal year, the organization averaged about 177,000 guest visits per month, a 4% increase from the previous year. It distributed more than 32 million pounds of food last year.
“This year, we expect to distribute even more,” Sinclair said.
The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank has observed similar seasonal trends in recent years. Guest visits between June and August were about 6% higher than January through May in 2023. In 2024, summer visits increased by about 16% over the same earlier-month period, Sinclair said.
“Finding childcare or paying for camps can be difficult and expensive for some parents, and when school is out, families who rely on the school’s referral system may not be able to use it,” Sinclair said.
Rising grocery prices, housing costs and utility bills have placed additional strains on household budgets.
As demand continues to grow, donations from the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive arrive at a critical time.
The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank collected 120,692 pounds of food and $6,401 through this year’s campaign, the largest total from the annual food drive since before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the organization, the donations will help provide nearly 120,000 meals throughout its 25-county service area.
Food insufficiency extends beyond the Shenandoah Valley.
Food assistance providers across Virginia report comparable challenges, when children lose access to school meals.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in need year over year since 2021, especially in the summer,” chief neighbor experience officer for The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, Robby Rockey said.
Hunger affects people from all backgrounds or, as Rockey puts it, “hunger has no face.”
“Someone who just lost their job with a really nice car can pull up because they have no income. People in military uniforms show up,” Rockey said. “There are seniors who have worked their whole life but are on fixed income.”
Transportation can create another barrier, particularly in rural communities.
“There are school summer meal programs, but they may be 15 to 30 minutes from students,” Rockey said. “In rural areas there’s no transportation to get students to these places.”
Several counties in Southwest Virginia, including Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee and Russell have some of the state’s highest child food insecurity rates, with estimates approaching 30%.
To address gaps in access, other food banks have incorporated summer meal box programs in localities such as Northampton, Southampton and Sussex counties, where access to child-focused food resources can be limited. Warsaw County also continues to rely heavily on rural outreach efforts such as partnering with local farms.
As food banks work to meet needs, many are also monitoring changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is facing its largest funding reduction since its creation, under the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“We have certainly heard anecdotally about the loss of SNAP among guests, but as with many things, it is difficult to show a causal relationship in the data for numerous reasons,” Matz said.
The legislation is expected to cut SNAP spending by nearly $187 billion over the next decade and could result in more than 2.4 million people losing benefits each month.
SNAP participation in Virginia fell from 812,199 people in February 2025 to 695,447 in February 2026, a 14.4% decline, while national participation decreased by 10.2% during the same period.
For many advocates, one statistic underscores the challenge: one in seven children in Virginia experiences food insecurity.
“About one in three of the people the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank serves is a child,” Sinclair said.
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