With food supplies disrupted by the coronavirus, Blacksburg’s Interfaith Food Pantry on Thursday will receive a much-needed donation of 22,000 pounds of food.
Vern Simpson, Director of the Interfaith Food Pantry, said recently they simply are not getting as much food as usual. “We’re getting a fair number of donations from individuals,” he said. “We normally buy a lot of our food and that’s been disrupted a whole lot.”
The pantry serves several hundred qualified families of Blacksburg and McCoy in need of food assistance who shop once a month to help keep their own shelves stocked. When Jackie Groesbeck heard of the food pantries’ empty shelves, she arranged a donation of 44,000 pounds of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I am thrilled that this is happening,” Groesbeck said, a member of the Church. “In talking with these organizations, I found they are having a hard time. They can’t even go and buy groceries like they used to.”
Groesbeck got word that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was looking for locations to donate food to. She submitted a request for food to come to her area and waited to see what would happen. This was all before the pandemic erupted.
One week ago, Groesbeck got word that her request, and 15 others, would be filled. A 53-foot semi-trailer is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, April 23, with more than 20 pallets of shelf-stable food.
That much food will make a big difference. In fact, according to Simpson, it’s more food than they could use at their food pantry. So he suggested that the food be split with another food pantry in the area.
“It will at least be six months (worth of food), maybe more,” Simpson said of the 22,000 pounds he’s expecting to receive.
Half of the food will go to the Interfaith Food Pantry in Blacksburg and the other half will be split again between Beans and Rice, Inc., in Pulaski and the City of Refuge in Pulaski.
Groesbeck was excited to arrange food donations among the three organizations. “These people are doing more than just giving out food,” she said. “They’re really working hard to support the needs of the people in their community.”
Groesbeck said the timing of the food donation is a godsend. “The Lord has been working and enabling the food to get here and other locations across the East Coast,: she said.
In keeping with Virginia’s stay-at-home order, social distancing will be a high-priority for the food delivery. Rather than having volunteers help to unload, a single forklift will do the heavy lifting. Half of the pallets will be unloaded into storage in Blacksburg while the other half will be transported to Pulaski.
