The Judeo-Christian Outreach Center in Virginia Beach has been feeding the hungry and housing homeless people for decades.
And because there is still an ever-growing number of people in need in the city, the nonprofit embarked on a $14 million plan to redevelop its property at 1053 Virginia Beach Blvd. A new campus has been a dream of Executive Director Todd Walker since he joined the organization 11 years ago, said JCOC’s development director Kristin Ward.
“He’s wanted to expand JCOC’s footprint and help even more people that find themselves homeless or hungry,” she said.
The organization is 98% toward fulfilling its fundraising goal thanks to an almost two-year Help Hope Healing capital campaign, Ward said. Donations can be made through the JCOC’s website. She said it is so important to rebuild because of the ongoing affordable housing shortage.
“We want to be a part of the solution,” Ward said. “And because our emergency shelter and day support moved over to the housing resource center four years ago, that allows us to have the space to expand our footprint and address the affordable housing issue even more.”
The number of daily meals the organization provides has reached well over 100 — even climbing to 145 in recent months, Ward said.
“To give you a comparison, last summer it was 85 meals every day,” she said, noting there are more women and children. “We’re serving 10 to 20 children every day.”
That’s why the center is eager to break ground on the expansion by the end of the year.
The center’s four buildings, home to the JCOC since 1990, will be torn down and replaced with a three-story building complete with a new dining hall, kitchen and offices for roughly a dozen employees on the first floor. The second and third floors will feature 38 single-occupancy studio apartments with a kitchen and bathroom. Each unit will have a housing voucher attached to it with a portion subsidized.
“The goal is, of course, for somebody to be able to thrive even more, but if it’s not to be, they can stay there as long as they need to stay there,” she said.
The rebuild process is anticipated to take two years with an estimated completion in late 2025, she said.
In the interim, the organization’s administrative offices relocated in mid-September to temporary office space at 762 Independence Blvd. near Virginia Beach’s Town Center. The center’s hunger relief programs, which include community dinners and a food pantry, are still operating out of the main campus but will relocate later this year.
The community dinner operations will move to Mount Olive Baptist Church to serve those in need Monday through Friday. Its food pantry, operating on Tuesday and Saturday, will move to First Lynnhaven Baptist Church. A community dinner will also be held there on Saturdays.
The emergency shelter and day support continues to run out of the city’s Housing Resource Center at 104 N. Witchduck Road. And the veterans transitional program and permanent supportive housing program, established in 2011, will remain in its locale.
“I tell people all the time that I wish I didn’t have a job here because that would mean that homelessness and hunger would be no more,” Ward said. “But until that happens, our team is here, dedicated and ready to help.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
