ABINGDON, Va. – In the old building, pallets of food were crammed into dark, tiny spaces, double-parked and hard to reach – but, nonetheless, millions of pounds of goods a year flowed through the facility to help those in need.
This year, with a new, easier-to-access building twice the size, the Appalachian Branch of the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank is on track to double its distributions, said Edd Roberts, the food bank’s resource development officer.
In 2009, Roberts said, the Abingdon facility distributed 5.7 million pounds of food to organizations that help the needy in far Southwest Virginia.
On Thursday, at a ceremonial ribbon-cutting for the new facility, the full pallets of food were stacked four high along the walls, lined up on heavy-duty metal shelves and easily accessible by forklift in an airy, well-lit warehouse.
The food bank has moved over the past several months, from a relatively small commercial building on the corner of Valley Street and Russell Road to its new facility, a much larger building just south of Interstate 81’s Exit 17 on Gravel Lake Road.
“Now we’ve got the space,” Roberts said. “The challenge will be finding the food.”
He said every organization the food bank serves has reported an increase in the number of people seeking help.
“They’re seeing a new clientele,” Roberts said, “folks who are traditionally middle-class, who have lost jobs and are having to turn to food banks to make ends meet.”
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., recalled at the ribbon-cutting how the food bank started in one room at the corner of Russell Road and Valley Street, eventually expanding to fill the entire first floor of the building, which it also outgrew.
The need, Boucher said, has just kept growing, and he thanked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Agency for helping to provide the money that made it possible for the food bank to move into the new space.
“Rural development is at the very foundation of much of the progress we’ve made in Southwest Virginia,” Boucher said. “Given the tremendous benefit that Second Harvest confers, and the need our people have for food on a continuing basis, this investment of federal funds is most appropriate.”
Ted Pile spoke at the event on behalf of Alpha Natural Resources, a local coal company and a major contributor to the food bank.
“In three decades, Second Harvest may not have vanquished hunger completely,” Pile said, “but it has not let discouragement block progress, and today we celebrate that progress.”
Pam Irvine, president and CEO of the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank, said the organization will continue battling hunger in the region.
“Our vision is to eliminate hunger in Southwest Virginia,” she said, “and we’ll work until that happens.”
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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