By Nancy Lindsey
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Monday night to remove the soup kitchen, along with related equipment and supplies, from the Patrick Springs Park Community Building effective Oct. 1.
Peters Creek District Supervisor Rickie Fulcher, Smith River District Supervisor Crystal Harris, and Blue Ridge District Supervisor Karl Weiss voted in favor of the motion. Voting against it were Mayo River District Supervisor Lock Boyce and Dan River District Supervisor Roger Hayden, board chairman.
Just before that motion passed, a motion by Boyce to keep the soup kitchen at its current location “indefinitely” failed 2-3, with the supervisors’ votes reversed.
The soup kitchen, a service in which founder Van Rowe and other volunteers cook and deliver jars of soup to needy, disabled and elderly people, has been a controversial topic since August, when Rowe received a letter from the Patrick Springs Parks and Recreation Committee ordering him to vacate the building by Sept. 1.
The supervisors postponed the removal date to Oct. 1, giving them time to review the minutes of meetings from the recreation committee and the Patrick Springs Ruritan Club, which sponsored the soup kitchen but has not actually owned the building since 1986, when it turned it over to Patrick County.
Five members of the Patrick Springs Recreation Committee gave their side of the story.
“We wanted to let you know that at no time has anyone tried to shut down the soup kitchen,” said committee spokesman Mark Trent. “We just asked that it be relocated.”
Trent said Rowe had created “issues” in the building, including locking doors and making some sections inaccessible. “He has taken over our building,” Trent said.
“To be accused of trying to take food out of hungry people’s mouths is ridiculous,” Trent said.
Harris, captain of the Smith River Rescue Squad, said Rowe’s statement in an earlier meeting that Patrick County was not prepared to feed people in a disaster was way off the mark.
She recalled the Bull Mountain fire of April 2006, which was finally brought under control after burning about 4,000 acres. Homes were endangered; 38 fire departments responded, along with Hot Shots firefighters from as far away as California and Colorado.
The situation was so desperate that men were phoning their families and telling them they didn’t know if they would be returning home, Harris said. Many “got down on their knees and prayed,” she said.
Harris and a host of helpers fed the volunteers three meals a day for a week, Harris said. The community played a tremendous role in the war against fire, hunger and exhaustion, she said.
“We were prepared for disaster,” Harris said, adding that a group of Hot Shots told her they had never been treated so well before. “Patrick County takes care of our own,” she said.
“This board doesn’t have any issue with the soup kitchen,” Fulcher said. “We don’t think it’s in the appropriate location.”
Fulcher said Ralph Lawson, a life member of the Patrick County Jaycees, had said the old Jaycee building in Stuart could be used for the soup kitchen, and it has a fully equipped kitchen.
While the Patrick Springs Ruritan Club had good intentions, Fulcher said, it did not have the authority to allow Rowe and his organization to use the building as a soup kitchen. In addition, the soup kitchen does not have health department licensing, he said.
“Nobody is opposed to the soup kitchen, just where it’s at,” Weiss said.
Boyce got into a discussion with Jennifer Scott, a resident of Belcher Mountain Road who does not want her section of road paved. He asked her if the number of paving opponents out of the total is nine out of ten, 11 out of 13 or some other number, then said most people living on dirt roads want their roads paved. Speaking to Weiss, Boyce said, “You said the overwhelming number of people want their road paved.”
“I’m tired of being lied to on this board,” Boyce shouted. “Do everything you can but don’t kick ‘em out. You can always get Boyce to pay for it.”
Trent said the building and the park belong to the county, along with the facilities in other areas of the county.
The Patrick Springs Recreation Committee has to pay electric and water bills and wants to do more activities such as t-ball games with concessions being sold, Trent said.
Boyce said the building was in terrible shape before Rowe took over. “Now his kitchen is in excellent shape,” he said.
“It’s not his kitchen, it’s the Patrick Springs community’s,” Trent said.
Rowe said he had recently looked into the cost of having a generator installed in the building, which could be funded partly through a grant from a Ruritan Club foundation. Then it could be designated as an emergency feeding station, he said.
Hayden said he had received a letter from a woman in her 80s who works as a volunteer and makes deliveries for the soup kitchen. She wants it to continue as it is, he said.
After more discussion, Boyce told the recreation committee members, “Shame on you, shame on you!”
“I hope none of you is ever hungry.”
