The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank is again heading into communites that need help filling their pantries.
Its mobile food pantry serves an average of more 3,000 people each month. And for some, receiving food from this pantry on wheels is the only option.
All hands were on deck Thursday morning in the parking lot of Effort Baptist Church in Palmyra. With extra help from 16 volunteers from Wells Fargo, packing and distributing the food took no time at all.
"It made it go a lot faster," Katie Harris of BRAFB said.
The last Thursday of every month is when employees and volunteers set up shop at this church, bringing along thousands of pounds of fruit, vegetables, bread, milk cereal and more, all in a mobile food truck.
"Over here you never meet a stranger. I just love meeting people," volunteer Willie Hill said.
The truck typically holds about 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of food, depending on how many clients volunteers expect to serve.
"When you pay your bills and you got a little bit left from your social security this helps 100 percent," Julia Lewis said.
A separate van brings dozens of boxes full of food for senior citizens, those over the age of 60 eligible to receive it.
About 225 Fluvanna County households will benefit from Thursday's mobile food pantry load, as volunteers close out the year doing what they love most.
"Helping, you know, I love to help," Hill said.
Volunteers will be right back at it again starting the last Thursday in January. The food bank says it's always accepting new volunteers to help out with the mobile food truck and serve those in need.
