Cheatwood campaigns for area-wide food security
By Kelly Alm
Warrenton resident John Marshall Cheatwood has donated money to charities before. But now he is multiplying the efficacy of a single check by making a different type of contribution — his time.Cheatwood, who has a long history in marketing and sales, and manages his own closing company in Warrenton, Closing Connection, LLC, is serving as major gifts director for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank (BRAFB).
Cheatwood called BRAFB in October after learning about the national food shortage through the news. “I don't live in a big house, I'm not rich,” he said. “But I'm willing to ask how I can help.”
He and BRAFB are hoping that Virginians in the food bank's 12,000 square mile service area will feel equally compelled to make a difference this year. “It takes more than food to feed the hungry,” Cheatwood said, stressing the importance of monetary donations to fund BRAFB's food distribution, operational costs and nutritional outreach programs.
Last year, BRAFB served 129,000 people, including 1,044 in Fauquier. That number doesn't account for everyone in the county experiencing food insecurity though. According to BRAFB Public Relations Officer Ruth Jones, 3,742 people in Fauquier live below the poverty line.
Although its current business model is efficient — ninety-four cents of every dollar donated to BRAFB is used to feed people — BRAFB's board members are asking the staff to take food distribution to the next level. “For the past 26 years, we've been a supplemental source of food,” CEO, Marty White said. “When people run short on food, we'll come up with it. But now we're adding a primary, direct distribution, in which we identify pockets of poverty beforehand.”
One of BRAFB's goals this year is to secure three meals a day for food- insecure children and two meals a day for food insecure adults. “We want to make sure that everyone has access to the food they need,” Jones, said.
Expanding the organization's food programs also means raising the bar for donations. White said he expects the organization's operational costs to skyrocket as BRAFB purchases more food, including more nutritional food for children's programs, as well as trucks for delivering the food. BRAFB's operating budget for fiscal year 2008 is $4 million.
Cheatwood plans to raise an additional $1 million. Divided among the 34 jurisdictions in BRAFB's service area, each county or city needs to contribute a sum of $30,000. He will be traveling throughout the 25 counties and nine cities that BRAFB serves to seek and secure major gifts from new contributors and expand the organization’s current donor base of 38,000.
“Generally, I'm looking for three people in each place to give major contributions of $10,000 or more,” Cheatwood said. “And, I believe it's out there.”
Cheatwood said he will be calling on the network of contacts he has built in the real estate and insurance industry for both donations, and for links to other potential benefactors. He will also be approaching state elected officials, who he said have the option of donating the remaining money in their campaign accounts (viewable online) to another candidate or to a charity.
While Cheatwood is focusing on securing major donations, he hopes that even those who aren't living high on the hog will recognize their giving potential.
Recalling two books he recently read, Bill Clinton’s “Giving: How each of us can Change the World,” and Mark Penn’s “Microtrends: The Small Forces behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes, ” Cheatwood stresses that “the small things people do can make a big impact.”
He noted that $1 million could also be raised over one year if 50 people from each jurisdiction gave $50 a month. Cheatwood asks that people donate at their upper level of comfort, or, better, upper level of discomfort. “For many of us, our biggest problem is deciding what we want for dinner,” Cheatwood said, “while other people don't even have food security. They're shelves are empty.”
If you would like to make a donation to BRAFB contact John Cheatwood at (434) 996-7924 or jcheatwood@brafb.org