The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) recently hit a dubious milestone: The food pantry has now served a record-breaking 2 million families in its 35-year history.
This bittersweet benchmark underscores both the increasing need for food assistance in the community, as well as AFAC’s commitment to addressing that need. Local food insecurity spiked dramatically over the past two years as inflation sent food prices skyrocketing, according to AFAC CEO Charlie Meng.
“Since the end of the pandemic—in 2022 or so—we have seen anywhere from 50 to 100 new families every month,” he says. “So we’re actually very much higher than we were even during the height of the pandemic.”
Food prices nationwide increased nearly 10% in 2022—faster than any year since 1979. In 2023, they went up another 5.8%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
AFAC distributes about 5 million pounds of food each year. Last week alone, the organization served more than 3,800 families—which equates to about 16,000 individuals, Meng says. The numbers continue to rise.
“Everything is going up and our families are suffering,” Meng says. “It took us 23 years to get to 500,000 [served]. It took five years to serve the next 500,000 [for 1 million total]. Then another five years to get up to 1.5 million. But it took only three years to serve the last 500,000, for a total of 2 million.”
AFAC focuses on distributing high-cost, highly-nutritious items such as fresh vegetables, milk and eggs. The nonprofit receives money from the county, but gets most of its $10 million annual operating budget from fundraising. Last year the organization received $703,606 from Arlington County and generated the rest through fundraising.
“Arlington is a very generous community and a socially aware community,” says Meng, who has been with the organization for 16 years. “We will serve whatever the demand is. My feeling is, thankfully, we’re here to help. I think we’re doing good work. I think it shows.”
Visit afac.org to learn more about how to volunteer, donate or organize a local food drive.