Growing nonprofit aims to end childhood hunger in Va.

Donyata Washington's group helped serve 15,000 free meals to Hampton Roads children in its first year.

The next year, 2007, the group served 74,000 meals.

The number grew to more than 287,000 meals across the state this year.

Washington, of Norfolk, founded Virginia Kids Eat Free to provide meals to children in the evenings and summer. Her non profit has grown so much that she was able to pay 55 people for work this year and is launching a campaign for specialized Virginia license plates.

"There are other people and other agencies doing what we do. We just want to make sure that we're here to feed the kids who are not being reached," Washington said. "I don't want to see any kid hungry."

If at least 350 people sign up for a special plate, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will consider making them. If 1,000 sign up, the group will get $15 from DMV for each license plate, Washington said.

She said she thinks childhood hunger could come to an end in Virginia if enough people got a plate.

Washington is a former Mary Kay saleswoman who underwent surgery for a brain tumor in 1997 and for breast cancer in 2002.

When she took her daughter, Christina, to dance classes, she noticed some children had money for fast food, but the ones who didn't would ask their friends for fries.

She remembered getting free meals at places such as Boys & Girls Clubs when she grew up in Richmond, and she started bringing snacks to dance class for children who didn't have food.

Washington also thought about children in poorer communities who eat lunch at school but might not eat when they get home.

In 2006 she worked with the First Baptist Church on Bute Street in Norfolk to start a summer meals program. Her husband, Christopher Washington, a professor of engineering at Norfolk State University, helped her apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She began getting phone calls in 2007 from groups who wanted to serve food to children. In April, she certified her operation as a non profit under the name Virginia Kids Eat Free, and this summer helped feed children not just in Hampton Roads but Roanoke, Richmond and Front Royal.

"It's a blessing to so many people," said Cyndi McGirt, the founder and president of New Beginnings Development Services in Portsmouth, which offers a home and education to pregnant teenagers.

Virginia Kids Eat Free delivered a week's worth of food each week this summer, and the girls learned how to prepare a menu, McGirt said.

"That was just such a blessing for our girls," she said. "Part of the program is independent living skills."

The food also freed New Beginnings to use its own money in other ways.

Virginia Kids Eat Free coordinates breakfast, lunch, supper or snacks. A standard lunch might be a ham sandwich, fruit, carrots, juice and milk.

Washington didn't begin as an expert in food service.

In 2006 she went to Sam's Club and bought 350 pizzas.

"I said, I could not do this every day. I could not cook 350 pizzas," she said. The chef at First Baptist Church showed her how to hire a vendor and get food delivered.

Now, Washington is versed in working with vendors. She pays the bills and the Department of Agriculture reimburses her for costs.

The Agriculture Department audits the program, she said. And she said she now works with about 130 churches and community groups.

One of them is Ebenezer Baptist Church on Baker Road in Virginia Beach, where high school students were paid to prepare meals in the church's industrial kitchen.

"We're excited about it," Pastor Terron Rodgers said. "We can't wait to do it again next year."

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com