Organization
Spiritual Roots Food Bank, a Feeding America Southwest Virginia Agent, founded in 2002.
Location
Christiansburg, Virginia at the Dwelling Place church.
Hours
Tuesdays & Wednesdays 4pm-6pm
Contact Info
(540) 381-5500
Customer Base
Food pantry patrons come from as close as Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and as far as Giles, Shawsville, and Ellston- about a 50-60 mile radius. The pantry provides for 13-14 families per week, but families can only visit the pantry once per month. Spiritual Roots aims to “fill in the gaps” for what welfare and other food sources for low-income people do not cover, as a once a month visit will obviously not sustain a family fully. The pantry does require photo ID to be sure the same families are not using the pantry resources more than once per month.
Food Sourcing
They source most of their food from Food Lion and Kroger donations, but also get discounted food from Feeding America for nineteen cents per box. This is funded by the church. They also get a lot of donations from food drives, particularly by student groups. Local farmers will drop off baskets of produce when possible, but most of their produce is sustained by grocery store donations in the winter. This food pantry also receives donations from Micah’s Garden. The donations are evaluated based on common sense standards that anyone would use when regularly grocery shopping: nothing rotten, nothing open, nothing expired.
Transportation
Volunteers pick up all food from donors and it is weighed. Local farmers drop of food occasionally.
Work Force
Volunteers are needed each morning seven days a week (10am-11:30am) to collect food from local merchants. Volunteers are also needed to distribute to the general public on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. In all, there are over 25 volunteer posts each week to effectively operate the food bank.