'Nothing goes to waste': Highland Food Pantry feeds the community

Reporter

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in. ~ Matthew 23:35

WINCHESTER — In 1984, Highland Memorial Presbyterian Church opened a small pantry to give away food to its neighbors in need.

That need eventually overwhelmed the capabilities of the pantry so, in 2013, Highland Food Pantry became its own nonprofit entity, taking over the entire basement of the church at 446 Highland Ave. but operating separately from the church itself.

Still the need grew — so much so that in 2019, the all-volunteer pantry's executive board came up with a strategic plan for growth.

Before the plan could be implemented, though, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in March 2020. For more than a year, thoughts of expanded pantry services fell by the wayside as volunteers — at least the ones who were willing to risk exposure to the coronavirus in order to serve the community — scrambled to fill food boxes for an ever-increasing number of individuals and families who needed help putting dinner on the table.

Before the pandemic, Highland Food Pantry invited clients into the church's basement to let them select the groceries and household items they needed. COVID-19 put an end to that practice. While the pandemic was at its height, a variety of common food items were placed in boxes, rolled up a metal chute and sent through a small basement window. On the other side of that window, volunteers grabbed the boxes and loaded them into the vehicles of recipients whose cars and trucks lined the street.

Last year, 2.1 million pounds of food worth an estimated $5 million came up the chute and out that window.

Now that the pandemic has lessened, pantry officials have gone back to letting people pick their own groceries. Rather than having hundreds of recipients and volunteers cram inside Highland Memorial Presbyterian Church's basement, though, people seeking assistance are given a list of available food items — the list changes from week to week based on what products have been donated to or purchased by the pantry — and asked to make their selections. The food is then passed through the basement window and loaded into awaiting vehicles.

This year, as COVID-19 concerns waned and the roster of willing volunteers grew to about 125, the pantry's executive board was finally able to return to its strategic plan. The changes that have been implemented so far have streamlined the intake process for clients and radically transformed the church building.

And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. ~ Isaiah 58:10

Tuesdays tend to be crazy busy at Highland Food Pantry. That's the day each week that anyone in need can get free groceries regardless of where they live, what they do for a living or how much money they have in the bank.

Jenny Callis, executive director of the pantry, stepped away from the pandemonium for a few minutes this week to talk about the Herculean effort involved with feeding the community.

Highland Food Pantry, which distributes items every Tuesday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 6 to 7:30 p.m., has grown to the point where it now utilizes most of the first floor of Highland Memorial Presbyterian Church (the congregation continues to share the space) and has made significant changes to the basement including the installation of new wiring, the removal of walls to increase space and the addition of a commercial-grade Everidge freezer that was purchased with a grant from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

When clients arrive at the pantry — the nonprofit currently sees an average of 110 recipients per week, the most in its history — they go into a room on the church's first floor and chat with volunteers who get them entered into the system or update their information.

"Every client meets with an intake worker just to check their address and whether they have children or other people living with them," Callis said. "That's really it."

Recipients then select the groceries and household items they need from a provided list. Volunteers in the basement place the requested products into boxes, roll them up the chute, pull them through the basement window and load them into clients’ vehicles.

"No clients have to go into the basement at all," Callis said.

As a bonus, everyone receives additional produce and baked goods donated to the pantry by local grocery stores.

"It's sort of like the icing on the cake," Callis said about the extra items.

For elderly people who can't drive to the pantry, volunteers drive bags of groceries to their homes once a month. Delivery expenses are offset by a $10,000 Community Impact Grant awarded to Highland Food Pantry earlier this year by United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley.

"This is for seniors who have a check coming in, but that check's not enough to buy food and medication," Callis said. "Right now we’re delivering 160 bags every month to seniors in our area who just need a little help."

Many of those bags are prepared by volunteers who themselves are senior citizens from local retirement communities.

"Twice a month, volunteers from Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury come to pack bags. The other two Mondays a month, volunteers from The Village at Orchard Ridge come to pack bags," Callis said. "One of my favorite volunteers is 94. I said to my husband, ‘I hope when I’m 94, I’m packing a bag for somebody.’"

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. ~ Luke 6:21

Highland Food Pantry gets its products from a variety of sources — financial donations, giveaways from area stores and restaurants, and discounted purchases from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank of Verona, which serves the Shenandoah Valley and has a satellite operation in Winchester.

"Because we can buy food from them [the food bank] cheaper than anywhere else, that's where we prefer to get it," Callis said.

The groceries that volunteers pick up weekly from participating stores and restaurants including Martin's, Costco, Target and Aldi tend to be things that were overstocked or are nearing their expiration date but can still be used.

"A bag of oranges might have one that's spoiled but the other 10 are fine," Callis said. "We’ll take out the spoiled one and give away the other 10."

On rare occasions, donations are so bountiful that Highland Food Pantry can't store it all. When that happens, Callis said the excess is given away to other local nonprofits including CCAP, the Salvation Army, Kids Club of Northern Shenandoah Valley and more.

"And on Tuesday nights, we have a pig farmer that comes in to pick up the stuff that is beyond human use," she said, adding that some spoiled produce also goes to feed the sick, injured and orphaned animals at Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in Boyce. "Nothing goes to waste."

To learn more about Highland Food Pantry or to support the nonprofit's mission of feeding the hungry, visit highlandpantrywinc.org.

— Contact Brian Brehm

at [email protected]

Reporter

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