On Tuesday, January 14, 2014, Feeding America Southwest Virginia (FASWV) brought its Mobile Food Pantry to Wythe County. The Mobile Food Pantry provided by FASWV in partnership with the United Company Charitable Foundation helps provide food for thousands of people in the most remote parts of southwest Virginia in addition to empowering communities. Tuesday’s distribution was not advertised in the paper or radio. It was only shared with a few non-profits, food pantries, churches, schools and the Department of Social Services in the county. When I arrived at the site location (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) over in Max Meadows, 60 people had already signed up and were quietly waiting in the church gym. It was only 1:20 pm and distribution wasn’t set to start until 3:00 pm. It gave me a chance to talk to some of the folks about The Community Food Kitchen (CFK) in Wytheville and introduce Michael Guerci, my fellow VISTA and Amanda Romans, HOPE’s Program Director. Michael was able to talk about his current Financial Education Workshop classes that started this past week and Amanda was able to provide information on HOPE and its current assistance programs. Harvey Atkinson, HOPE Board Member and all-round “food security guru”….from the Lil’ Maroon Packs to Agape Food Pantry (and the CFK several times a month) was also able to join us at the inauguration of the Wythe County distribution site in Max Meadows. In addition, several of the area food pantry coordinators along with their volunteers stopped by to view the distribution and stepped in to help setup the site. The distribution had a few hiccups but overall it off without a hitch and by the end of the program at 5:15 pm, approximately 200 families had been served. Each family left with about 50lbs of food which included organic milk, a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal, bread, etc. The site coordinators and volunteers were wonderful and very well organized for the event. Agape Food Pantry and the Fort Chiswell Church of God Food Pantry were the benefactors this month of the items that remained after distribution. We are looking forward to next month’s distribution. A big thanks to Feeding America of Southwest Virginia, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Max Meadows for hosting the site, and all the volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen. Great Job! Kathy L. Koch, AmeriCorps VISTA
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 23:14:13 +0000
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