Norfolk couple's statewide nonprofit expands

When Toni Hempfer picks up her children from the YWCA’s after-school program at Mary Calcott Elementary, she knows they’ve already had a nutritious dinner.

The program gets meals to serve its students from Virginia Kids Eat Free, a nonprofit run by a Norfolk couple.

“It’s ensuring kids are getting what they need,” said Hempfer, of Ocean View, who works full time. Two of her children, ages 7 and 9, are enrolled in the YWCA program.

There, they might have chicken sandwiches, peas, corn and spiced apples one day; baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans another.

Virginia Kids Eat Free has grown since Donyata Washington, 40, and her husband, Christopher, 45, founded it in 2006. Washington was inspired by the experiences of her daughter, Christina, an eighth-grader at Norfolk Christian School. Christina had been in a dance class years ago, and when some children didn’t have food or money to buy a snack, she shared hers.

Washington, of Colonial Place, shopped at wholesale clubs and brought snacks for all the children at her daughter’s activities, she said.

The experience helped inspire her to start Virginia Kids Eat Free. In its first year, it provided about 15,000 meals in the Hampton Roads area. In the past five years, the program has expanded across the state, and last summer it served 478,214 meals. This year, the Washingtons partnered with Domino’s to serve pizza at some of their summer sites for the first time.

Chris Washington, a mechanical engineer and former professor at Hampton and Norfolk State Universities, used to help his wife only in the summers. He’s now made it a full-time job.

“My view is I can always go back and teach or go back to the profession,” he said. “I thought what she was doing was a worthy cause. I could bring something to the table to help with the growth.”

The business has hit bumps on occasion, he said, and the couple have invested their own money in down times.

Now, he is focused on finding funding through grants. The program is now supported by a reimbursable grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child and Adult Care Food Program. Virginia Kids Eat Free collects meal-count forms from individual sites and presents them for reimbursement.

Statewide, the Washingtons’ program serves children in Hampton Roads, Roanoke, Richmond, Manassas and the Eastern Shore, among other locations.

Keeping the program running as it grows takes serious organization. Weekdays throughout the year, cooks prepare hundreds of meals at Trinity-Word of Faith Baptist Church on Grandy Avenue for pick-up or delivery to local sites.

The Washingtons also coordinate the delivery of raw foods where meals are prepared on-site at some facilities.

The program needs a larger kitchen, a convection oven and racks for the large cans of nonperishable foods, cook Shelia Johnson said.

One day, the Washingtons hope to have several satellite offices across the state with central kitchens and warehouse space.

Donyata Washington’s commitment to directing the program keeps her busy in the Virginia Kids Eat Free office at 952 Norfolk Square, adjacent to

Norfolk Industrial Park. She works behind the scenes, rather than delivering meals, as she did when the program launched. Still, her hands and her husband’s are still in touch with the heart of the program.

“They are just an amazing couple,” said Claudette Carson, a cook who has worked with the Washingtons for several years. “They really want to make a difference, and they really are.”

Stacy Parker, 222-5432, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com