Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC)

I came here for community service and I just went out for 5 minutes cause it smells dirty and I just wanted to get fresh air. Guess what? They went to my account and clocked out for me and they didn’t tell me about this. I worked 2 hours more when I was clocked out. At the end of the day I was trying to clocking out, the woman named Danielle said “Oh we clocked you out cause we couldn’t find you” So… if you wanna do community service this is not the place. I HIGHLY NOT NOT NOT RECOMMENDING THIS PLACE.

A great place to volunteer! They have a lot of different opportunities. Not sure about some reviews that say you just volunteer to bag stuff. I've done many things from food drives, volunteering at the farms, and bagging oats & oranges. There's usually always availability for distribution, farm planting/gleaning (when it's in season), warehouse work, food delivery to senior homes or disabled folks, etc. The schedule is very flexible for working NOVA adults too. I haven't done distribution as I'm very introverted and usually working during it, but every time I've volunteered adjacent to it, the food is portioned very well with a lot of variety. As someone who has used food banks as a kid, they give tons of great staples compared to some of my experiences. P.S. - They also take donations from the local community gardens which is awesome!

So helpful and courteous in these trying times.

Always caring volunteers. They also have people there that share helpful information about other community services such as transportation and health care. This is a wonderful place. No one looks down on you for being in need like at some other places I've been too before.

I went for the first time this past Tuesday with my partner. Marianne the middle aged woman with light brown hair at the front desk who checks people in, gave us attitude about our ID’s not having a current address in Arlington on file. We brought our lease agreement as instructed by social services and she proceeded to insist we need to have the ID’s with the current address. Social services explicitly stated that we could bring our lease agreement and we did. Once my partner mentioned we have an account on file, she finally checked after she tried to have us as a walk-in. She could’ve done that in the first place. That customer service right there put a bad taste in my mouth, with how much we proved that we do have an account on file for AFAC. That was a frustrating experience right there.

Super friendly staff helped get food for my neighbor immediately.

I want to say THANK YOU to all the people involved in this worthy work. My family and I have been blessed with your beautiful work and your big heart. Thanks again!!!

Volunteer, I’ve volunteered at AFAC several times and I don’t feel like I’m helping the community and the less fortunate since the food were giving them is ultra processed and not healthy since most of the people I’ve given food too are very overweight. The other thing I dislike about AFAC is that a lot of the fresh food they use is expired and moldy. Do better afac with what food you ask for in donations you should ask for low sugar less ultra processed foods. Back in 2016 I volunteered there with my church and I actually thought I would be actually helping out the less fortunate but no. We were there to bag frozen chickens and measure beans and rice and honestly I felt like I’m giving my time to do something that the people at AFAC are too lazy to do it totally changed my view of AFAC. I left feeling angry that I spent 2 hours not helping people but bagging and measuring food.

Listen, you sign up for this, you get free food. It helps people who are in need, so if you're low income, have SNAP/TANF benefits I highly recommend you utilize this service. Excellent Volunteer program as well. Thank you all for all you do.

This IS a wonderful place -- helpful people, good selections of foodstuff -- but the 3 or 4 dumpsters in that immediate area STINK and the stench is intolerable, whether you are just walking to the entrance - or even worse - waiting in place for the doors to open

Hunger in the Arlington area is a fact of life and this organization helps to alleviate some of the suffering. The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) serves our neighbors by providing supplemental groceries to those in need. The client base is the local immigrant population, the elderly, the disabled and families that have been referred by local social service organizations. The nonprofit is always looking for volunteers and food items so any help is greatly appreciated. Volunteers with language skills are especially needed on days when groceries are distributed. Other volunteer options are to come in on days when the distributed groceries are bagged. There are many opportunities available at this nonprofit, it takes little effort to make a difference.