About Facing Hunger Foodbank
Every plate has a story.
Every plate makes a difference.
The Facing Hunger Foodbank provides nutritious canned, boxed, fresh, frozen, and prepared food to nearly 130,000 individuals annually. This food is recovered and secured from restaurants, supermarkets, food distributors, the USDA, farmers, wholesalers, sportsmen, and through food and fund drives.
Facing Hunger Foodbank distributes emergency food through 252 Partner Agencies and Programs including soup kitchens, neighborhood centers, family crisis centers, and homeless shelters for adults and children. By accessing food from the Foodbank rather than purchasing from commercial outlets, each of these Partner Agencies has expanded resources to advance their own missions.
Facing Hunger Foodbank serves those who are hungry throughout the Foodbank’s 4,538 -square-mile service area including: Cabell, Boone, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mason, Mingo, Putnam, Wayne and Wyoming counties in West Virginia. Boyd, Greenup, Lawrence and Martin counties in Kentucky and Lawrence County, Ohio.
The history of the Facing Hunger Foodbank.
Facing Hunger Foodbank is a private, non-profit, charitable organization founded in 1983 and is incorporated in West Virginia. Formerly known as the Huntington Area Food Bank, the foodbank initially served Cabell and Wayne Counties. The need was so great across the region that the foodbank expanded its service area after just its first year of operation. The food bank’s service area currently includes 252 agencies across 17 counties in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio.
In its first full year of operation, the foodbank distributed nearly 300,000 pounds of food to food-insecure people. Since the turn of the century, the foodbank has consistently been distributing more than 3 million pounds of food annually. In 2020, the foodbank distributed more than 15.7 million pounds of food.
Facing Hunger Foodbank is an affiliate of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Through this program, the foodbank provides services to 17 counties in the region.
The foodbank also receives financial aid from the federally funded Emergency Food and Shelter Program (FEMA), allowing food to be purchased for member agencies in Cabell, Lincoln and Wayne Counties.
The foodbank also receives and distributes USDA commodities through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and The Emergency Food Assistance Program in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Grants help to sustain specific programs like the BackPack Program and Mobile Pantry Program. These programs help ensure clients of all ages have access to enough food.
Food drives held by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), public schools, local universities and numerous business and civic organizations in the Tri-State help to stock the Food Bank. Their charitable giving of food items, both perishable and non-perishable, is greatly appreciated.
Facing Hunger Foodbank was named Best of Huntington Award in 2012 by the Huntington Award Program Committee in the Best Non-Profit Organization. For two consecutive years, the foodbank has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, the nation’s premier charity evaluator. The foodbank is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest donation of baked goods. ViSalus donated 52,000 pounds of its all natural “mini-meal” Nutra-Cookies.
In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.
Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.
To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ad-3027.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:
- mail:
S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or - fax:
(833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or - email:
Intake@usda.gov
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.