Disaster Relief Food Ministry Inc. celebrated the opening of its new Stuart office and storage facility with a ribbon cutting Monday, marking the organization’s first permanent location in Patrick County.
Founder Jimmy Willard said the new location will allow the organization to establish a physical presence in the county while creating opportunities to expand its operations.
The office space will allow Willard’s wife and organization director, Carol Willard, to complete accounting and other paperwork closer to her job at EMI. The organization also hopes to eventually use the nearby green building for food storage.
“I won’t be able to store any of my food or any of my boxes until I get it to where I can get it inspected by Feeding Southwest Virginia, and that’s down the road quite a ways,” Willard said.
To meet Feeding Southwest Virginia’s standards, Willard said food distributed in Bassett and Patrick County must be stored separately.
“It takes a lot of room, so that’s why the warehouse in Bassett is important. But I believe we’ll be able to move Patrick County freezers here and I’ll have the frozen ones on site once we get inspected and all of that. Of course that depends on what we find when we get in there that we have to repair and that type of thing,” he said.
If approved, Willard said the organization hopes to distribute food boxes directly from the Stuart location.
The organization’s goal remains serving residents in need, Willard said.
“It’s to help the county and not hurt anyone who’s trying the county. It’s to work together and be the hands of feeding Jesus to really benefit the community because this need is really growing. I mean it’s grown tremendously in the last year. We sign up new clients every day,” he said.
The new office will also allow Disaster Relief Food Ministry to provide assistance outside of its regular distribution schedule.
“That’s my goal is I’ll work out of this office here, and this will be open five days a week in the future,” Willard said.
If someone has an immediate need outside of distribution days, Willard said they will be able to receive an emergency food box at the office.
“It won’t be like we’ll have a distribution five days a week, but if they walk in we’ll have access to get them a food box then. It won’t be a thing where they have to wait a month until someone’s open to get it,” he said.
While the organization waits to see if it can use the green building for freezer storage, Willard said its truck equipped to store frozen items can remain outside the office.
“It works really good for the volunteers the way we’re set up out here to give out to be out of the sun or the rain. Here locally it’s going to work out real good. I’m pleased to be here, it’s going to be great. Once we get in here and settled in, that’s the main thing,” he said.
If the green building cannot be used, Willard said the organization is open to purchasing a small building for freezer space.
“Anything’s possible,” he said.
Willard estimates Disaster Relief Food Ministry distributes 600 to 1,000 food boxes each month in Patrick County and about 300 boxes monthly in Bassett.
The boxes typically contain enough food to last for two weeks. Carol Willard also works to plan meals recipients can make using items included in their boxes.
“Carol really gets into it. If she’s got spaghetti noodles in there she’ll make sure she has sauce to go with it. Now sometimes I might not have hamburger to go with that sauce, but it’s spaghetti sauce and you can doctor it up to make it good. If you got a bag of pinto beans in there we’ll make sure we got something to make some cornbread with or something,” he said.
Willard said several trustee inmates with the Patrick County Sheriff’s Office helped renovate the office space.
“They done all the painting, the floors, and everything, so it’s really been a blessing to have those guys” help us, he said.
The organization also recently donated pallets of water to the Patrick County Jail and the county’s maintenance department.
“It really helps out the county in so many ways. And that’s what we want to do is be a presence,” he said.
Disaster Relief Food Ministry distributes boxes at its Bassett location, 24A Governor Stanley Highway, on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
The organization distributes boxes at Rotary Field on the first Thursday of each month from 2 to 4 p.m. Its mobile food pantry visits Smith Brother Trucking in Ararat from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and Meadows of Dan Baptist Church from 1 to 2 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month.
Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 993, Stuart, VA 24171.
For more information, visit drfminc.com, Facebook.com/DisasterReliefFoodMinistryInc, or contact Willard at (276) 229-6272 or [email protected].
