Families can receive food from Food for Others in three ways.
- Emergency Referral Program: You refer families for emergency food assistance. Food for Others provides them with 3-5 days worth of food.
- USDA Program: Families receive food from the USDA program if they qualify based on income. Some families you refer will find out they also qualify for USDA. Families can receive USDA food 1x per month.
- Neighborhood Sites: Families don’t need to do anything to qualify for this program. They can simply show up at the times the sites are listed. However, this is only supplemental food and is not guaranteed for how many meals it will last.
To help them, here you can learn how to submit an emergency referral. An emergency referral is helpful as it provides additional food, often including milk and eggs.
We have an online referral system. In order to submit a referral, you need to sign up to have an account with our online system. Each organization has its own page for referrals and multiple referral contacts who can access it.
If you would like to apply to be a referring organization or a new referral contact, please CLICK HERE to fill out our online application. You can expect a response within 48 hours.
If your organization is already in our system, please go to your Return Client Dashboard (RCD) via the URL that was emailed to you on behalf of Food for Others.
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- The RCD will allow you to send a referral for a new or old client. You can find written instructions on how to use our new online system by clicking HERE. Additionally, we have written instructions, including an FAQ section available in English and Spanish.
- If your organization needs to add a referring agent’s contact, please go to your RCD to access the right form.
- If you lost your RCD link, please email info@foodforothers.org to retrieve your organization-specific link.
Emergency Referral Guidelines
- A client can have a maximum of 8 referrals in a fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).
- A client may only have 1 referral per calendar week.
- One referral equals one visit. An additional allotment of food would require an additional referral.
- Once we receive the referral, the client has up to 2 weeks to come in and retrieve the food from our office at 2942 Prosperity Ave, Fairfax, VA 22031.
- The client is required to bring in a form of ID showing where they live. It can be a driver’s license or a piece of mail with their name and address on it. For example, a bill, letter from their child’s school, etc. A passport can be used as the picture ID.
- Referrals must come from an organizationally based email. We can not accept referrals from that come from yahoo, Gmail, etc.
- Please know the referral form must be in our system before the client comes in to pick up their food. The client cannot carry in the form unless it is a prescription from a doctor. Also, there is no “approval” needed; as soon as the referral is submitted, the client can come in.
