BLUEFIELD, W. Va. -The “Mountaineer Food Bank,” a member of the nonprofit “Feeding America,” travels the state to bring their mobile pantry to places in need, coming to Mercer County three times this year.
“…We do this in places that we consider desolate, or they don’t have a lot of food opportunities, especially for fresher foods, so today we brought fresh bell peppers, some butternut squash, some fresh potatoes, a good variety,” says Lilly Hoover, mobile pantry assistant for Mountaineer Food Bank.
They also once again collaborated with the Mercer County nonprofit and food bank, Connections to the Connection.
“When we first started out, we started out with the elderly population, like try to provide food, our food pantry and, you know, just different things like that…” recalls Angela Reed, director of Connections to the Connection, “…but it grew to be so much more than that, as you can see.”
While there is always a need for food in the community, the nonprofits here say, with the storm and power outage, there is now an increased need, with many more asking for help after losing their food supplies.
“It has been a very great need, and, you know, dealing with the storm that we just had, a lot of people lost their food, so they’re waiting on, you know, their extra SNAP benefits and things like that, but in the meantime, we hope to be that meeting place where we can provide them with enough food until they can buy their own food with the SNAP benefits,” says Reed.
“The need is always there, but especially right now after the hurricane came through and we… also saw some of the devastation here in Bluefield and so there’s many a people that were affected. Some of them had their power knocked out. They lost some of the food that they already had and so they’re really looking for the food that they don’t have,” says Hoover,
Both Reed and Hover praised the members of the community who volunteered their time here, with more than twenty working to pass out the food. Together, the two organizations were able to deliver more than nine thousand pounds of food to the people of Mercer County, helping to feed around two hundred households.
If you would like to help out Mountaineer Food Bank through volunteering or donations, you can go to their website or Facebook page.
Reed says Connections to the Connection is always looking for more volunteers. They could use support at their food pantry held three times a month and at their soup kitchen they hold every Thursday at 415 Federal Street. You can call Reed at 304-922-4006 if you would like to volunteer or donate.
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