BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Facing Hunger Foodbank is looking to establish a full-time food pantry in Inez. Cyndi Kirkhart, CEO of Facing Hunger Foodbank, spoke to the Inez City Commission Thursday about the nonprofit company’s goal to use such a building to aggregate USDA products, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Senior Commodity Supplemental Program.
The location would also serve as a staging site for Facing Hunger’s various other programs, including providing availability of emergency resources during disasters. Initially, it would provide a couple of jobs.
Facing Hunger sends mobile food pantries to communities like Inez, where many residents are facing food scarcity.
“We find that pantries that are open one time a month, based on what we’re doing with mobile pantries, really does not supply the need,” Kirkhart told the commission. “Additionally we have a lot of home health and community health workers who are going on regular visits with our seniors who can’t get to food. By being open more regularly, we can allow them to pick up food products and make home deliveries.”
Facing Hunger services 17 counties—12 in West Virginia, four in Kentucky and one in Ohio. Kirkhart explained that a local pantry would allow Facing Hunger to increase and expand distribution efforts regionally and within the county.
“This would also allow us to reach […] the other side of the mountain,” Kirkhart said, referencing the local shorthand acknowledgment of the southern and eastern parts of the county. “We would be able to leave directly from here, have at least one truck on-site, and be able to start our day just like everyone else does versus traveling from Huntington or Lexington.”
Kirkhart said Facing Hunger needs a place with a parking lot large enough to allow people to pull off the road and to accommodate trucks with liftgates. She needs a building with about 2,000 square feet.
“We’ve tried looking, but I figure you all have a much better sense of who might have some availability,” said Kirkhart. “We don’t have a lot of money but I’m willing to commit so that we can bring a couple of jobs here and make sure the citizens here in Martin County have easy access to food.”
Once established in the county, Kirkhart would identify local farmers from whom to purchase produce for the pantry.
“We operate very efficiently,” she said, mentioning the organization had 14 employees when she started in 2014 and now has 47. “I would be adding to take us over 50 to have folks here … With good work comes good reports … We shake a lot of bushes for money.”
An audience member asked if Kirkhart had spoken to anyone about the old IGA/Shop-Rite building in Inez that Brad Pack owns.
Kirkhart said she met with Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty and his team earlier in the week, and someone in that meeting informed her that Pack was looking to get $11,000 monthly rent for the former grocery store.
“It’s been on my radar for a long time,” said Kirkhart. “I would certainly love any opportunity.”
She added that the loading dock and parking lot make the old IGA an “awesome” place for Facing Hunger’s purposes.
The building across the parking lot from the former supermarket, which formerly housed Rite Aid and a Family Dollar Store, and other locations were part of the discussion.