The day after the remnants of Hurricane Helene crashed over Southwest Virginia, the superintendent of Galax City Public Schools took a look at the resources the division had to share. With generators running and a supply of frozen food on hand, school leaders brought staff in to prepare hot meals for residents who didn’t have power.By the next day, Sept. 29, Galax High School had mobilized its fleet of buses and had delivered breakfast and lunch to the most populated neighborhoods on its bus routes, said Superintendent Susan Tilley. By the end of the day on Oct. 1, more than 370 meals had been delivered. “We’re always going to do anything we can for our students and families,” Tilley said. Most of Galax lost power in the storm, but the damage wasn’t as severe as in places such as Damascus or Grayson County. Still, residents lost groceries from their refrigerators and freezers, and during the days it took to get the power back on, many were left unable to cook meals.Food is often the most immediate need after disasters and is especially important in Southwest Virginia, where food insecurity is more severe than in other parts of the state. The region’s food insecurity rate, which refers to the number of people who do not have access to sufficient healthy foods, is as high as 22% in Norton, compared to the statewide rate of 11%, according to data from Feeding Southwest Virginia. In Buchanan County, the child food insecurity rate reaches 29%.School buses delivered meals to Galax residents after the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread power outages. Courtesy of Susan Tilley. Credit: Susan Tilley, Superintendent of Galax City Public SchoolsLocal efforts, like the one at Galax High School, can help ease the initial strain on the food banks and pantries that usually support those struggling to afford meals. However, in the coming months, the need for long-term food assistance will likely increase in the areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.After a natural disaster, communities usually see an immediate flood of support, but as the weeks go by, those resources start to dwindle, leaving people feeling forgotten. Hunger relief organizations, which were already operating at high levels in Southwest Virginia, will likely be under greater pressure as more people are launched into food insecurity in the coming months or years, said Sarah Misyak, assistant director of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Family Nutrition Program at Virginia Tech.“Oftentimes, when people experience food insecurity, it’s because of a shock, like unexpected payments or cost, so that’s another way to think about a very unexpected event, which strains already limited financial and other resources that people might have,” Misyak said. Long-term effects on hungerAmong the relief efforts that came in the days immediately following the storm, the Virginia Department of Corrections rallied personnel as well as inmates to help distribute food and fresh drinking water. The department distributed 25,000 meals across Damascus and Marion and at emergency shelters in Russell, Grayson and Wise counties, according to Tom Meyer, the department’s administrator for the western regional institutions.“We feed and shelter thousands of people every day, that’s what we do,” Meyer said. “As soon as some of our local partners started realizing how big of an asset we were, the requests just started coming in.”Meyer has been with the DOC for about 30 years, and he said he has never seen the department respond to needs in the community in this capacity before now, he said. Chad Dotson, the director of the department, marveled at the statewide response to the flooding in Southwest Virginia.“I’ve never been prouder to lead this agency, and statewide everyone is pitching in … even if they’re not in Southwest Virginia, people are donating items, there are drives everywhere,” he said. “Then especially our people in Southwest Virginia, who just selflessly jumped in it. We’re just glad we could be a part of a larger effort to really help people who are hurting. I hope we provided a little bit of comforting care to our fellow Virginians.”About a week after the storm, the Department of Corrections started winding down food distribution, as the relief efforts started transitioning to long-term recovery, Meyer said. After a natural disaster, the initial response from relief organizations, volunteers and the general public is often swift and robust. Donations pour in, recovery efforts mobilize, and communities are flooded with resources and support. But as attention shifts, the early momentum tends to decline sharply, according to Liesel Ritchie, a professor of sociology at Virginia Tech. A Feeding Southwest Virginia truck was parked in Damascus the day after flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene devastated the area. Hundreds of residents lined up to receive food boxes. Courtesy of Pam Irvine. Credit: Pam Irvine, President and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia“What we’re likely to see over time is that people will be forgotten and over time there’s a good possibility that the food sources that we’re seeing now will dwindle,” Ritchie said. Food banks and pantries have already been under a great deal of stress since the COVID-19 pandemic.In fact, the need for services has increased in recent years as donations have decreased, said Pam Irvine, president and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia, the local chapter of Feeding America. In the weeks leading up to the hurricane, Harvest Home Community Kitchen at Feeding Southwest Virginia’s Abingdon distribution center had already seen an increase of about 207 people seeking takeout meals for families and seniors. The meal program operates about three days a week and provides free, hot meals to those in need of assistance. After the storm hit, Feeding Southwest Virginia deployed a truck to Damascus where the organization passed out 10,000 bottles of water, 773 food boxes and 490 produce boxes, Irvine said. In Washington County, where Damascus is located, about 72% of the population was eligible for federal nutrition programs in 2022. The annual food budget shortfall for hunger relief programs in the county came to about $5.9 million, according to data from Feeding America. The destruction from Hurricane Helene will likely result in ever greater challenges for residents and food pantries. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture made an additional food allocation nationwide, and Irvine said she is hopeful that Virginia will receive some of those supplies to help feed more people for a longer period of time.Feeding Southwest Virginia has also connected with other community partners such as Food City, Kroger and Food Lion to secure donated water. Donations from the community are always welcome, she said. “We were already challenged with our food supply,” Irvine said. “We’re concerned about that increase in need, and we’ll see what that looks like now [after the hurricane]. There will be more food insecurity because people have lost everything.” The need for food assistance has reached similar percentages to 2008 when industries began leaving Southwest Virginia, she added. Seniors and single-parent families with children are the most vulnerable to food insecurity following a disaster like this, according to Ritchie. People without internet access, cellphones or transportation are also more likely to experience hunger after a shocking event. As people start to experience food insecurity, they’re more likely to reach for unhealthy foods, which are cheaper and easier to access, Ritchie said. This can lead to health issues in the community, such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. “I think it’s important to keep in mind that this is not a sprint. It’s a marathon,” Ritchie said.Access to mental health resources in the coming months will also be important, she added. Tensions in the community will likely increase as rebuilding efforts get underway and emergency relief efforts pull out.“Hopefully people in these communities take care of one another in the event that this outside help and these resources stop coming, and I think looking to their community-based and faith-based organizations for support and for guidance, it’s going to be really critical,” Ritchie said.The post Community partners across the region stepped up after Hurricane Helene, but long-term relief efforts could be strained in the coming months appeared first on Cardinal News.First published by Cardinal News.