HARPERS FERRY — It was only a year ago that the efforts of several people to create a food pantry in the Blue Ridge came to fruition.
Susan Benzinger and her husband, Ray, partnered with Catherine Austin to establish the pantry in the former St. Andrew’s Church at 65 Mission Road. A year later, the pantry achieved official pantry status, allowing it to receive supplies from the Mountaineer Food Bank. They fed approximately 1,914 people in their first year.
“We fed 131 families and provided 22,036 pounds of food,” Bensinger said in an interview this week. “Our volunteers donated an average of 285 hours of their time per month.”
The food pantry, called the Blue Ridge Food Pantry, provides shelf-stable food to any family or individual living in the 25425 zip code.
“That’s our only requirement. There are no income restrictions, documentation or other requirements to receive food. People just come, choose from a list of available food and take the food home,” she said, adding that it is never possible to know the circumstances of any particular individual or family.
She explained that people who use the pantry include families struggling to keep up with rising food prices, retired people, people living on Social Security or people with other issues who struggle to make ends meet for a month’s food bills.
“I would say 98 percent of the people who use the pantry have a job or receive Social Security or veterans benefits,” Bensinger said, “but sometimes that’s not enough.
“We have the highest number of children below the poverty line in our county,” she said, referring to the Blue Ridge Mountains, with that number reaching 74 percent of the area’s children.
Currently, the pantry receives supplies each month from the Mountaineer Food Bank, including free items provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to people who qualify based on income level.
Organizations instrumental to the success of the pantry include the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, which donated the pantry space; Shepherdstown Shares and CCAP/Loaves and Fishes, which helped set up the pantry and organize operations; Patti Pest Control, which removed dangerous trees that threatened to fall and cause major damage; and Clearview Trees.
Many other local residents and organizations continue to donate to the pantry, including Caring Cupboard, members of Shepherdstown Lutheran Parish, Harpers Ferry Women’s Club, Mountain Community Center, Chestnut Hill Methodist Children’s Group, Homeward Calling Ministry, Mountain Lake Club and Holy Cross Priory (a Knights Templar abbey in the United States).
“We receive grant funding from the Mountaineer Food Bank Posey Perry Grant and the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation Youth Grant,” Benzinger said, adding that while food donations are welcome, it is often only by receiving funding that volunteers are able to shop for and replenish inventory for the most needed items.
The best way to make a monetary donation is to drop off donations during the pantry’s business hours or by mail to Blue Ridge Food Pantry, PO Box 556, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. Anyone wishing to donate food can visit the pantry’s Facebook page, BRFoodpantry, where a regular list of needed items is posted.
The pantry’s hours will continue to be Tuesdays 3:30-5:30pm and Saturdays 11:00am-1:00pm.
