By Angela H. Hill

The first Stuart Pancake Days scheduled for this past Friday and Saturday lost a day to Old Man Winter’s weekend takeover of Patrick County. However, on Friday alone, the effort garnered $1,600 in proceeds, $8 at a time.

Half of the funds raised at the Rotary Field event will go the Feed the Funnel, a program that culminates in the April 1 Pack Shack event where volunteers hope to pack 28,000 meals for area residents who need food.

The other half will go to the Disaster Relief Food Ministry Inc., a 501(c)3 organization that operates a food pantry and ministry, and delivers food to those in emergency situations here and at disaster sites across the country.

Jimmy Willard, who founded the ministry with his wife Carol, volunteered at Pancake Days. As he helped in the Rotary Field facility kitchen, he shared that the night before, volunteers from Disaster Relief responded to an emergency request for food from a single mother of four who had nothing to eat or feed her children.

Statistically speaking, Willard continued, approximately 3,500 adults and one in three children meet the criteria for being at risk for hunger here in Patrick County. In 2016, the Map the Meal Gap study released by Feeding America estimated the nationwide rate of people struggling with hunger at one in seven.

Additional volunteers were on-hand Friday to collect meal payments, clean trays, serve food and cook – including several school-aged helpers from Bassett and the Fairystone area. By 1 p.m., the pancake chefs had gone through 10 lbs. of batter.

Honduras Coffee donated the coffee; Clark Gas & Oil donated gas for the grills; the Patrick County Shooting Education Team donated use of the grills, coolers and cooking trailer; and the youth group of Stuart United Methodist Church purchased the sausage and bacon.

A private donor contributed the remaining ingredients, said event organizer and SUMC youth group leader Jane Cardwell. Also, she said, having a volunteer who delivered pancake meals was a huge help in driving the fund-raising effort.

The SUMC youth group will continue raising the $7,000 needed for Feed the Funnel and for a church mission trip to plant trees in Gatlinburg, Tenn., with a church breakfast available the first Sunday of each month starting February 5. The pancake breakfast is $7 a plate and served from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., for dine-in or carry-out.

Feed the Funnel and Disaster Relief Food Ministry are two of many organizations that help feed Patrick County’s residents in need. Please see the accompanying list for area food pantries and free meals.

Van Rowe, founder of the Patrick County Soup Kitchen, said the weekend weather pushed Tuesday’s delivery to Thursday, but soup will still go out the 30-40 families signed up to receive soup this week.

Rowe encouraged all local churches to contact him at (276) 694-2709 if they have congregation members who could benefit from soup. He said he’s not able to take on additional deliveries, but has plenty of soup to share for churches that can send drivers to pick it up.

Also, the Patrick County Food Bank is looking for volunteers to help pack boxes every second Wednesday of the month and unload deliveries every second Monday of the month.

Photos by Angela Hill