Join the Chamber Ambassadors for a Ribbon Cutting with Arlington Charities.

Arlington Charities is one of the oldest social service organizations in the city, and Arlington’s largest provider of supplemental food for people in need. In 2025, we distributed nearly three million pounds of food through our multi-faceted food assistance programs that include drive-up service, home delivery, mobile markets, and our innovative market truck.

We are thrilled to welcome the Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the installation of new refrigerated lockers. With the opening of the new lockers, funded by a grant from the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation, Arlington Charities will launch an After-Hours Grocery Pickup Program.

Our current food distribution programs operate within normal business hours, creating access challenges for shift workers and hourly employees. Our After-Hours Grocery Program addresses this gap by installing 18 refrigerated and frozen smart lockers, enabling 24/7 grocery pickup. This first-of-its-kind program in Arlington leverages industry-leading technology to:

• Provide secure, temperature-controlled food storage for pre-selected grocery orders.

• Ensure real-time monitoring and reporting of food pick-ups, power status, and inventory levels.

• Offer multilingual digital interfaces to accommodate Arlington’s diverse community.

• Reduce environmental impact with energy-efficient R290 refrigerant technology.

Lockers consist of nine frozen and nine refrigerated containers because clients receive both frozen and refrigerated items in their orders. This 18-locker combination allows for 9 orders per day, serving as many as 7,087 individuals annually.

We welcome all to join our celebration!