Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511220029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``I wish this warehouse was empty because there was no need for it,'' he said. ``I wouldn't mind losing my job for that cause.''
But Childress knows that while most of us are eating our fill of Thanksgiving turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce today, some of his neighbors will go to bed tonight having tasted such a feast only in their imaginations.
The reality is that even if the warehouse is empty, ``they don't stop getting hungry.''
There are a few new arrivals in Childress' receiving area. Some pallets are loaded with Coca-Cola, others with paper products. One crate is filled with donations of canned lobster bisque - not as popular an item as, say, peanut butter.
More than 420 nonprofit agencies and churches are counting on 4 million pounds of food moving through the Food Bank's Roanoke warehouse this year. And the demand always doubles during November and December.
Usually, donations also multiply for the holidays, but this year the emptiness has been tangible. ``This is it,'' Childress said. ``Usually we're full at the beginning of the week, then empty by week's end this time of year. It's been like this for three or four weeks.''
But Childress has faith - in God and in those who donate the food and other supplies - that there will be enough to meet the demand.
``It's a mission,'' said Childress, who has worked at the Food Bank for 13 years. ''I believe in what the Food Bank stands for and what it does. I believe it is a champion in the community.''
The sense of fulfilling a calling is common among the agency's 16 employees, including Director Pamela Irvine.
``It is a mission field. We see a lot of miracles here people might not see in churches,'' she said.
Western Virginia churches constitute a significant number of the Food Bank's clients.
The employees and a host of volunteers serve Virginia west of a line running roughly from Covington to Danville. The region includes 26 counties and 11 cities with more than 1.1 million residents. More than 35,000 households are considered below federal poverty levels.
``The fastest increasing trend our agencies see are the working poor, families with children,'' Irvine said.
The Food Bank doesn't work alone, of course, in its mission to alleviate the effects of hunger and malnutrition among those and other clients, Irvine points out.
Local retailers - including chain grocers Kroger, Food Lion and Harris Teeter - supply much of the food and other products. Through its affiliation with the national Second Harvest network of food banks, the Roanoke operation has access to national manufacturers, such as Nabisco, as well. The Southwestern Virginia Food Bank spends about $30,000 a year on transportation costs to ship in contributed items.
Local banks gave money and manpower to renovate office and meeting space. Other companies donated expertise in computerized record-keeping. The warehouse itself, on Shenandoah Avenue Northwest, has been donated rent-free for 10 years.
Individuals contribute food and money to keep the operation going. Local growers, shippers and manufacturers donate. Volunteers help keep the warehouse stocked.
And there are the 425 nonprofit agencies that distribute the food - shelters, church food pantries, soup kitchens, group homes, rehabilitation centers, box-lunch programs and Head Start providers.
On a recent morning, Zelda Nester, administrative assistant at Church Court Day Care and Nursery, was picking up supplies.
``We always find things we need,'' Nester said, though perhaps not the same items each visit because the stock is constantly changing. Her agency depends on the Food Bank to hold down costs for the breakfast and lunches Church Court serves. Nester comes by every week or two, she said, spending $50 to $100 per visit.
The Food Bank staff is ``friendly and sweet. They are always helpful, especially to somebody new, explaining things for you.''
The savings ``helps our grocery bill a lot,'' Nester said.
The warehouse supplies range across a broad spectrum. There are cases of Attends undergarments, Passover matzos, sponges, Ultra Slim Fast, dishwashing detergent, baby food, books, Newman's Own spaghetti sauce, oat bran, bagel chips, Wish Bone honey dijon salad dressing and Pepsi. There are paper cups, saltines, taco shells, chopped sea clams and hairdressing gels.
Many of the food items on the shelves come from the regional Kroger reclamation center. Potentially salvageable goods are donated to the Food Bank, which throws out those that are unusable and shelves those that can be consumed.
Though Kroger and other distributors and manufacturers continue to be key suppliers for the Food Bank, they actually have less to contribute these days because of improved management, higher efficiency in their own operations and reduced waste, Irvine said.
While those contributors to the Food Bank have been consistently generous over the years, Irvine said, public interest in poverty and hunger seems to run in cycles.
At the moment, for instance, Congressional focus on welfare reform has people thinking about the issue again.
``Welfare reform will create a service deficit,'' Irvine predicted. ``I'm not saying changes aren't needed, but there will be less people qualified for federal support, and the needs of the agencies we supply will be increased. They are not prepared to take up that slack.
``We need reform, but we need to be very careful with the processes we use to do that. A lot of agencies are already doing all we can. There's just so much resources.
``I have faith and I believe God supplies needs, but we also must use wisdom and planning,'' to meet the challenges the agency faces, Irvine said.
Their jobs are often thankless and sometimes unseen, staff members say. In fact, many of its beneficiaries don't even know the Food Bank exists because most of them receive food through other, intermediary agencies.
That doesn't bother Wayne Childress back in the warehouse. It doesn't take much encouragement to keep him fired up about a job he knows is important.
Not long ago, he said, ``an elderly lady wrote us a letter. She quoted some Scripture and told us how near the edge she had been. `Thank God for the Food Bank,' she said.''
``I'll never forget that letter,'' Childress said. ``That makes everything seem worth it.''
by CNB