Hundreds turn out to Greenbrier County food pantry
By Jenny Harnish, RealWV
Virginia Jenkins receives $581 in food stamps for herself, her husband and two teenagers. They usually come on the 4th of every month, but they didn’t come this month. On Tuesday she waited in line with others to get food at Wellspring of Greenbrier’s food pantry in Rainelle.
“I feel bad taking stuff that other people need,” she said. “I know there’s more people that need a lot more – if I didn’t need it I wouldn’t have come.”
Wellspring of Greenbrier’s Executive Director Abigail Spangler said this is a story they have been hearing a lot lately.
“Folks are already getting a limited amount of food stamps and now it’s much less. We’re seeing that over and over again,” Spangler stated.
Spangler said that they usually see about 450 people on average at each open pantry, but that at their last food pantry they served over 600 people.
“People come all the way from White Sulphur Springs, Ronceverte, Rupert and Rainelle,” Spangler added. “We’re seeing a lot of people from Fayette County now. We’re definitely seeing an increase from people coming from surrounding counties.”
On Tuesday the line at Wellspring began to form about an hour before they opened, and they let people in so they wouldn’t have to stand in the cold. Chairs were provided for those with handicaps, while volunteers prepared to open.
The pantry is a “choice style”` pantry, which allows individuals to select which items they want to bring home. Volunteers walk them through the selection process. This week they were able to select items for a Thanksgiving meal.
“We have non-perishables like you would see in any other food pantry and then we also have fresh meats. We have frozen things and we have eggnog and also ham for Thanksgiving this year,” Spangler said.
Much of the food comes through the Mountaineer food bank and local churches and businesses have been stepping up to help. First Citizens Bank and The General Lewis Inn and Restaurant recently held hygiene and food drives to contribute.
“We have fresh baked bread from Fruits of Labor which is just right down the street,” Spangler noted. “We have whole frozen chickens, we have ground beef from Swift Level, pork sausage from a local 4-H member named Lane Samson. I think this time we got fresh butternut squash from Ben’s Salad Bowl in Crowley. So we have everything from your regular foods that you would find at the grocery store all the way to local breads from a local bakery so we’re excited about that.”
Besides food giveaways Wellspring offers free laundry, showers, Wi-Fi and other services at no cost at their Day Haven in Rainelle.
Spangler said that hunger has always been an issue, but since the cost of everything has been going up funds that normally would be used for groceries are being used for other things like living costs and utility bills.
“We see so much need here with families with children, veterans, seniors and everyone in between” Spangler said.
