Retiree is mainstay of West Davidson Food Pantry - Lexington Dispatch

By Vikki Broughton HodgesCorrespondent

REEDS - For the past decade, Reeds native Henry Mitchum has approached his volunteer work at the West Davidson Food Pantry like a job — and one he enjoys.

After serving 30 years as a federal mediator for the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia, Mitchum retired and returned home. He worked as a substitute teacher for seven years before leaving that second career behind.

In 2008, as the Great Recession began, Mitchum was asked by a longtime friend, the late Gary Foster, then pastor of Reeds United Methodist Church, to serve on a commission to start up a food pantry in the West Davidson community. Ten years later, he still represents his home church, Shiloh United Methodist, at the nonprofit organization largely operated by volunteers from a dozen churches in the area.

“My generation has to do something,” said Mitchum, who is 76. “I’m doing something five days a week.”

He noted his only living sibling, a sister, Margaret Wooten, still works full time for the N.C. Department of Parole and Probation even though she has more than 30 years of service and could retire. One of nine children, Mitchum has deep roots in the community and lives in a home he built on land that his been in the family for generations.

Mitchum said he is the chief “gofer” for the food pantry and spends four days a week — Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday — picking up food from the Food Lion in Tyro. The food is typically close to an expiration date or an overstocked item. Another volunteer picks up food weekly from the Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem.

About 400 to 500 people receive food boxes monthly at the pantry once they are certified as eligible, Mitchum said, noting he also spends about three hours, from 4 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, taking and processing applications for assistance. The monthly food boxes include a meat, produce and bread or dessert as well as canned fruit and vegetables and dry goods such as rice and pasta. Toiletries are included as they are available.

In addition to trips to the local grocery and certifying individuals, Mitchum also delivers plastic tubs of food on Fridays for the weekend to children at Reeds and Tyro elementary schools. On Tuesdays, he picks up the tubs and gets the count for the next week. A community volunteer delivers food to Churchland Elementary on Fridays. About 200 children from all three schools receive the weekly food allocation, which is known as “the backpack program,” although tubs replaced backpacks for sanitary reasons.

Mitchum noted a Duke Endowment grant got the pantry off the ground and local donations of money and food, such as eggs and seasonal produce, help sustain the organization. As a former federal bureaucrat, Mitchum said he is meticulous in his recordkeeping of donations. In addition to food, the pantry also accepts clothing donations that are distributed to those in need.

The active retiree said his former career as a mediator in the DOJ Community Relations Service, which deals with civil rights, prepared him to be a good listener and be empathetic to people. His job often involved working with law enforcement to ameliorate racial tensions during events such as protest demonstrations.

A member of West Davidson High School’s first graduating class, in 1959, Mitchum also has a background in anti-poverty programs that goes back to college. He graduated from Appalachian State University in 1966 with a business education degree, but began working part-time while in school for one of the first anti-poverty programs in the area called WAMY (Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties) Community Action. He taught adult basic education to high school dropouts and, upon graduation, worked full time for several years with AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program aimed at alleviating poverty.

“This just seems like a natural progression in helping people,” Mitchum said of his volunteer work with the pantry. “It seems like the right thing to do and it’s needed. I do it for the people but I do it for myself, too. It makes you feel good to help people.”

Mitchum also helps people with his service on the board of directors of Davidson County Cancer Services and his previous terms on the board of Hospice of Davidson County.

Wendy Marion, the paid part-time director of the West Davidson Food Pantry who previously served as a longtime volunteer on the founding commission, said Mitchum’s devotion to the success of the nonprofit organization is remarkable.

“Honestly, he is such a huge asset,” Marion said, noting his trips to Food Lion four days every week. “People don’t tend to commit like that anymore.

“I think he really worries about people being hungry in the community, especially the children and senior citizens — that’s where his heart is.”

Vikki Broughton Hodges may be contacted at vikkihodges@mac.com.