Sentara & Peninsula Foodbank Partner On Food Pantry Locker

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Individuals with health problems, who are also experiencing food insecurity, have some new support on the peninsula. Now they can swipe a card at the emergency department of Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, and walk into a refrigerated food locker pantry that offers free food.

The food locker is open 24/7 to patients who have been discharged from the hospital but they don’t have enough food at home and need support.

“If a nurse determines a patient has a need, they will give them a code to the food locker. When the patient leaves the hospital, they’ll use that code to get a week’s worth of non-perishable food for free,” said Esscence Riddick, director of patient care services at Sentara CarePlex Hospital, speaking in a recent statement on Sentara’s website.

“Being able to actually give them food as they’re leaving, that is huge from a nurse’s heart. It feels good to do something good,” Riddick said.

The free-food-swipe card was developed after ongoing research showed 10 percent of Hampton Roads residents have limited access to healthy food, the highest rate in Virginia, where the average is 4 percent.

Renee Figurelle, chief operating officer of the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank, said, ““This is a dream come true, even for me personally, and we couldn’t have done this without Esscence and Sentara. “We’re always looking at where people are getting food from and how they’re accessing it.”

After more than 40 people, from Sentara and the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank, recently gathered to celebrate the opening of the first-of-its-kind food locker in the Sentara system,  Craig Gallaer, the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank’s chief development officer, said, “These lockers are going to allow our neighbors access to food assistance on the weekends and after hours, while a lot of food banks are not available to them. So that’s another huge step forward for food access as well.”

Individuals receive a private code to the refrigerated food locker program, which is funded by one of many partnerships Sentara has with the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.

Its not the first time that Sentara and the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank have partnered in an effort to end food insecurity in Hampton Roads. In July 2024, Sentara Home Care and the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank joined forces to deliver free food to vulnerable seniors across the Virginia Peninsula. In January 2025, Sentara opened its third community care center in Newport News, with a retail food hub on-site in partnership with the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.

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“Sentara has always looked at innovative new ways to reach people who may not have been reached by traditional food assistance programming,” said Gallaer.

Foodbank volunteers regularly restock the lockers. The lockers currently offer only non-perishable food items such as canned goods and plant-based proteins, but the goal is to soon put fresh produce in the lockers as well.