Becky Shilling-Rodocker, executive director of the Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling, examines what food items are needed for the kitchen’s pantry.
WHEELING, W.Va. — Pastor Darrell Cummings said the Bethlehem Apostolic Church now has just days to find a new provider after the Mountaineer Food Bank informed him this week they won’t be bringing a tractor–trailer full of food to the church’s annual food distribution event on April 4.
Mountaineer Food Bank, located in Gassaway, W.Va., laid off 17 members of its staff last week and is canceling long-distance deliveries throughout the state amid financial difficulties. The move is affecting most food charities in the state, including those in the Northern Panhandle.
Cummings said his church expects to distribute food baskets to 750 to 1,000 people on April 4, the day prior to Easter.
“I’m sure their stomachs don’t care the food pantry is down,” he said. “When we started advertising, we didn’t didn’t know anything about this. … This will affect us greatly, and now we are scrambling.”
Cummings said he is “desperately” trying to find an alternative solution.
“We have been working with (Mountaineer Food Bank) for close to 20 years,” he said. “It is not only us, but there are a lot of places where people locally have been getting help from them. This is devastating.”
He said the church has made a commitment to the food distribution, and it will take place as scheduled. Cummings, though, does expect the food costs to be double what was expected as the church likely will have to purchase its items from traditional grocery stores and make arrangements to pick up items.
The church typically spends between $5,000 and $6,000 on the Easter food distribution, and the costs could be as much as $12,000 this year, according to Cummings. He questions whether there is enough time to make up the difference.
Mountaineer Food Bank is the only such organization servicing 48 of West Virginia’s 55 counties, said Stacy Burkhammer, financial director for the food bank.
The Facing Hunger food bank in Huntington serves the remaining seven counties in southern part of the state.
Food banks in nearby Pennsylvania and Ohio are not permitted under state law to bring items into West Virginia.
Mountaineer Food Bank’s issues began during the summer of 2014, when a computer crash caused it to lose all of its financial records. A new board of directors has since been installed, and it is seeking to run the agency more efficiently.
Stopping long-distance deliveries is among the changes decided by board members, according to Burkhammer. She said it typically costs the agency $5 per mile to transport items by truck, and often the drive exceeds 500 miles.
“We are still open, and it is our hope to be open for years to come,” Burkhammer said. “We are having financial difficulties, but our goal is to continue business as usual.”
Becky Shilling-Rodocker, executive director of the Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling, said she hadn’t heard from the food bank yet about any cutbacks in deliveries.
She had been scaling back purchases from the Mountaineer Food Bank in recent months after seeing their listed inventory consistently contained the same items, and she deduced these were likely older products.
She said some items purchased there last summer did prove to be unusable, and not necessarily a bargain.
More recently, she has purchased needed items from major food distributors used by grocery stores.
“A lot of the items we were buying from Mountaineer Food Bank were processed foods, and now were looking at cooking more from scratch,” she said. “We can make onion or mushroom soup here for pennies per bowl.”
Patty Phillips, development director for Catholic Charities, said the agency is holding out hope Mountaineer Food Bank will continue to be a source for groceries for the 18th Street Neighborhood Center. She said the food bank is able to supply them meat in a cost effective manner, though Catholic Charities always make certain to have multiple food sources available to them.
“We are concerned about their struggles,” she said. “They are a great partner in the fight against hunger. It helped all agencies and the people in West Virginia to have a food bank serving the hungry.”
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