A Virginia charitable organization is dropping a food program that helps the needy in five states, along with other local services, to focus on its international medical mission.

Bristol-based Kingsway Charities Inc. also cut its staff from 16 people to six.

Kingsway said Tuesday that it can no longer afford to both help the region's needy and to provide medicine to missionaries in developing countries.

Kingsway Director Albert Hester said Tuesday that the organization's endowment has lost "much of its value" due to Wall Street's losses in 2008.

Local services being dropped include the Lords Storehouse, a food donation program that serves the needy in Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.