Safety Net

Your Funding Support through United Way of Rockbridge

You know that financial empowerment starts with access to services. So, United Way of Rockbridge funds the following agencies that have a focus on providing a safety net services in their programs.

The CommunityTable

The Community Table provides ‘restaurant quality meals without a cash register’ where guests can enjoy a high-quality, nutritious meal, in a dignified dining environment one evening and lunch per week. Having experienced a steady increase in the number of younger children attending meals, they instituted a series of childhood nutrition education events. This affords the opportunity to introduce children to new and different foods and tastes and provides them with the social etiquette skills to be confident in the cafeteria and dining setting of school. The Community Table served 8212 meals during 2019. With restaurants closed during the pandemic, The Community Table pivoted to delivery of meals in driveby carryout containers. They also partnered with several local restaurants who provided already made meals.

Natural Bridge/Glasgow Food Pantry

NB/GFP serves qualifying households in the southern Rockbridge County communities of Natural Bridge, Natural Bridge Station, Arnold’s Valley, Fancy Hill, Plank Road and Glasgow within an estimated 15-25 mile radius of the Glasgow facility. The NB/GFP delivered food boxes that fed an average of 500 individuals per week in 2019. Due to increased funding, the food pantry also was able to install new commercial doors to facilitate the unloading of large pallets of USDA food from the Verona food bank.

Rockbridge Area Relief Association - UWR funds two programs

FOOD PANTRY - Provides quality, healthy food to area residents who are living at 200% of poverty level or below with a goal to increase food distribution by 50% (to 300 tons per year) by the end of 2020. RARA partners with other local agencies in an effort to fight food insecurity in Rockbridge County while incorporating “Flavor” into the Food Pantry to promote tasty, nutritious food. They recently implemented a new Senior Food Box program to address the growing problem of senior hunger and encouraged local gardeners to “grow an extra row” for the Food Pantry. Since several other food pantries have opened, RARA has helped to create and coordinate the Rockbridge Hunger Coalition.

HELPLine - Provides financial assistance with utilities, heating fuel, rent, shelter, and transportation to area residents who are living at 200% of poverty or below. They also provide screening assistance for the local churches and serve as the EnergyShare agency for Rockbridge County. The HELPLine offers a lifeline to ensure warm, safe shelter by preventing evictions and utility cutoffs.

Rockbridge Area Transportation System

Dialysis patients need to go to treatment 3 days each week, 52 weeks per year. For private paying individuals, the cost for transportation is too much. UWR funds RAT’s free rides for Dialysis patients. Overall, RATS provided 27,018 one-way trips during the 2019 year and they continue to look for partnerships within the community with other local agencies to provide much needed transportation. The pandemic restrictions were particularly difficult for RATS due to the shutdown and several months of delayed medical appointments. Their vehicles were idle during much of 2020 but the time provided the opportunity to reimagine delivery of some services.

Campus Kitchen at W&L

In 2019 Campus Kitchen partnered with RARA, the largest nonprofit addressing poverty in the Rockbridge area, to re-imagine the Mobile Food Pantry and make deliveries more efficient throughout the delivery area. Campus Kitchen also administers the The Campus Kitchen Backpack Program to provide weekly after school snacks to approximately 771 pre-K and elementary school students on the free or reduced lunch program in Rockbridge County. Backpacks contain 5-7 snack and meal items for each student and delivered to the schools in preparation for the weekend. The coordination in 2019 served the community well as Covid restrictions forced a reimagination of deliveries in 2020. Despite a period of remote learning, students still received their backpack snack and meal items.