People often ask me why Food for Others serves so many people here in Fairfax County. A stunning graphic on the Washington Post website today (April 23) says it all. This graphic shows the hourly wage needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment in each U.S. county.
For Fairfax County, a person needs an hourly wage of $23.83 to rent a one-bedroom apartment. The federal minimum wage is $7.25. So even a married couple working at minimum wage is well below what’s needed to live here. People are forced to choose between the rent and food.
Fairfax County is the 13th most expensive American county out of the 3144 surveyed. It is easy to be poor here.
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Indeed, it is easy to be poor everywhere in the U.S. No single county in America – not one out of 3144 -- has a one-bedroom housing wage below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. This is part of the reason why Food for Others, and so many food banks around the country, serve so many people. There are more than 200,000 people in Northern Virginia who are “food insecure” -- USDA’s description of people whose “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.”
Last year, Food for Others served 400-600 families every weekday, giving out over 2.2 million pounds of free food with a donation value of over $3.6 million.
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For information about donating or volunteering for Food for Others, call Nikki Clifford at 703-207-9173, or you may go to foodforothers.org.
