Food pantry launches delivery program
with new refrigerated truck    

By: Jessica Shaw

Residents of the Robert E. Lee building lined up with shopping carts to receive their monthly quota of free food Tuesday afternoon as volunteers at the Rockbridge Area Relief Association Food Pantry unloaded the pantry’s new refrigerated truck.

It was the trial run of the Lexington food pantry’s satellite food service, a plan to deliver food once a month to three locations with a high concentration of elderly and disabled residents.

“We’re hoping this will be a help to everybody,” said Mary Brown, director of RARA, the nonprofit agency that operates the pantry. 

Food pantry workers know many Rockbridge residents have trouble getting to the food pantry’s building, tucked away at the far end of North Main Street beyond Virginia Military Institute.   

The trial run this week brought deliveries to three subsidized housing locations in Lexington: the Robert E. Lee Hotel, the Lexington House and the Windemere Apartments.

RARA is funded by the United Way and donations. Treasurer-Secretary Mary Bergen said if the delivery system is successful, RARA hopes to expand its services to other areas of the county such as Goshen, Glasgow and Raphine. 

The mobile initiative has been a goal for RARA for at least a year, Bergen said.

The breakthrough came this summer when the Carilion Foundation gave the organization $35,000 to buy the refrigerated truck. The foundation is the charitable arm of Carilion Healthcare, which owns Stonewall Jackson Hospital.

“There’s no other way this could have been done,” Bergen said.

But success also depended on other donors. Bergen said the Carilion Foundation required RARA to raise about $14,000 from other sources in one year. In two months, the organization raised $19,000. Spencer Home Products gave $7,000. 

The truck arrived Aug. 6. It will make deliveries and retrieve food from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank in Verona.

The local Kroger at 422 E. Nelson St. also helps by letting customers purchase $8 boxes at check-out counters that are then packed with food by customer service manager Lester Kennedy. Volunteers from the pantry pick up the boxes every few weeks.

Boxes provide four full meals and contain items like spaghetti, peanut butter, soup and apple juice. All mid-Atlantic Kroger locations began the relief box project last year, Kennedy said. 

“We have some customers who buy one every time they shop,” he said. Kennedy sees the program continuing. “The need is great in the area.” 

Others in the community have also been reaching out. Recently, local residents Jim and Kathy Kvach have started a garden dedicated to providing fresh produce for the pantry.  

His garden is huge, Kvach says.

 “You could probably feed half an army off it,” he said. After a comfortable life, he said, he wants to give back to the community. 

Kvach said he and Kathy start planting in late April and continue until the first frost, usually in mid-October. They grow green beans, squash, tomatoes, beets and other produce. 

The food pantry receives three types of food: USDA-subsidized food, purchased food and donated food. It is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3-4 p.m. every week. People can receive food from the pantry once a month, but Bergen said people are never turned away if they come more often. 

“If someone comes in and says, ‘I need food,’ they walk out with food,” she said.

The pantry served 7,108 people in 2006, a 64-percent increase from two years earlier. Brown said the organization has felt the pressure of the increased clientele, but the community has continued to meet its needs for food and volunteers. 

“I’ve never seen people not come through,” she said. “The people of Lexington and Rockbridge County are extremely generous.”

The pantry accepts volunteers of all ages. Brown said with the new delivery program it could use more help. 

Bill Hunter began volunteering at the pantry recently after reading about it in his church bulletin.

“I think you have to decide for yourself where you can participate, but the scriptural admonition is to care for the poor,” he said. “Sometimes caring means giving away food. Sometimes caring means paying a utilities bill. Sometimes caring means just being their friend.

“Maybe you can’t solve their problem, but you can be their friend.”