Mountaineer Food Bank mobile pantry ensures families have food for Christmas

Dec. 22—FAIRMONT — Mountaineer Food Bank held its final mobile pantry of the year in Palatine Park on Thursday, in partnership with Connecting Link.

"It is close to Christmas so that's why we tried to bring such a wide variety of options," Lilly Hoover, mobile pantry assistant, said. "It's not just solely holiday food, it is a variety of things that everyone needs in their kitchen. We have some fresh potatoes and carrots from local farmers. We have canned green beans, some frozen peaches. And we also have almonds and walnuts. Everyone wants walnuts and almonds around the holidays."

The car line for food stretched from the East Park Avenue entrance to the park, underneath the million dollar bridge to the staging area where volunteers handed out cardboard boxes full of food. A teenager dressed in his finest greens as Buddy the Elf helped distribute supplies.

Hoover estimated that Wednesday's mobile pantry would feed about 500 people across almost 280 households. It was all packed into a 40 foot truck. A row of tables formed a makeshift assembly line, volunteers unpacked crates of food and repacked them into open top cardboard boxes, filling them with everything from walnuts to canned foods and beyond.

"We're giving them at least two items from each product and we have at least 10 different products here," Hoover said. "So everyone's going home with a good size box of food today."

Brandi Singleton, co-director of Connecting Link, said the mobile food pantry stops by every two months, six times a year. She said food insecurity in Marion County is high.

"The cost of food is just outrageous these days," she said. "People are really struggling to make ends meet. I noticed people's SNAP benefits have decreased, as their income maybe increases just enough to go over that threshold. It's just really trying times in the area right now."

The end of pandemic-era food benefits this year added additional financial burden to many households in the area. That, coupled with the increased cost of food, has thrown a one two punch at many pocketbooks in the area, making food pantries essential to the wellbeing of many residents.

"We've had a lot of changes within this state with food stamps, dropping by the amount," Lois Martin, Connecting Link's other co-director, said. "Right now with the way inflation is, it's much needed, whether it be the Mountaineer Food Bank being here, or the cleaning supplies that Connecting Link brought."

It's especially been difficult for the most vulnerable members of the community, such as homeless residents. Kelly Heldreth, landlord liaison for the West Virginia Coalition to end Homelessness, said that her group works to help people get connected to food and medical services. They provide help to 44 counties in West Virginia.

"Part of my job, as a landlord liaison, I try to recruit property owners, property managers and landlords to work with our rental assistance programs," she said. "We can provide temporary rental assistance to folks once we house them, then get them help, get them stabilized and connected to more permanent resources."

Which is why Mountaineer Food Bank, Connecting Link and its partner agencies working to ensure there's food for a Christmas feast on the table is important.

"This will fill their bellies and let them eat with their family," Heldreth said. "And gve them those warm fuzzy feelings that we all want to have at Christmas."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com