Mountaineer Food Bank opens office in Beckley
May 22—Mountaineer Food Bank, the state's largest emergency food provider, has opened a new office in Beckley to serve veterans.
Retired Raleigh County Sheriff Steve Tanner is heading the operation.
Former Raleigh Commissioner Ron Hedrick told Raleigh Commission during the regular meeting on Tuesday that Tanner's office is at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building on South Kanawha Street. Tanner will do community outreach in order to expand the reach of Mountaineer Food Bank into the southern counties.
Mountaineer Food Bank is a nonprofit food distribution operation that, through Hedrick's influence, started to distribute food in Beckley, from the Linda K. Epling Stadium, during the pandemic. Based in Gassaway, the food bank partnered with AmeriCorps, which pays the director's salary, to open the office in Raleigh County, said Hedrick.
Tanner is the local director and Hedrick is supervising the project, which is part of the Veterans' Table Vista. The goal of the program is to reach out to as many veterans as possible to provide food services, paying particular attention to those who are in poverty, homeless and disabled, said Hedrick.
There is a one-year contract for the project. Hedrick said the goal is to expand into southern counties. The office will become permanent in Raleigh County if the first year of operations shows that there is a need for the program in Raleigh County.
"From my side, as a veteran, and, basically, because I work with Mountaineer Food Bank on the food distribution, they reached out to me to see if I would be willing to support the project," Hedrick explained on Wednesday. "I was able to locate an office space, furnished with all they need, and a building where they could have water, bathroom, electric, all the stuff provided so he's not going to have to pay, or the program won't have to pay, utilities or for the office space."
According to the Mountaineer Food Bank website, the nonprofit was created in Braxton County in 1981 and has become the largest provider of emergency food in West Virginia, distributing 20.7 million pounds of food each year. It supports 450 feeding programs in 48 of the state's counties.
Hedrick said that Beckley, Martinsburg and Clarksburg were chosen as the three cities to host the veterans' program, which Mountaineer Food Bank is supporting. The three cities are also host cities to Veterans Administration Medical Centers, he observed.
"There are a number of needy veterans," said Hedrick. "One time, I was headed to Oceana, and I saw this guy walking (on the hill that leads to Lester from Crab Orchard).
"He lived down in Lester and walked to the Food Lion in Crab Orchard.
"He was walking back over to the Lester area, where he lived, and he said that's what he has to do to get to the grocery store."
The Vista program could be a game-changer for a number of veterans in southern counties.
"If it's successful, it gives them (Mountaineer Food Bank) the needed services to seek expansion and to do more in this area than they currently do," he said. "I think it will be successful."
He said that, during a past food distribution, about 120 veterans came for a box of food.
"That's the ones that could drive," Hedrick noted. "How many are at home, that can't, or how many are disabled?
"Sometimes they're just disabled, wheelchair-bound, or can't get out and get something like that."
Raleigh County Commission pledged support for the program during the Tuesday meeting.
"We hope to make it a successful kickoff to a program that will benefit not just our veterans but everybody in the southern part of the state," Hedrick said on Tuesday.
He said mini-mobile food distribution via Mountaineer Food Bank will occur on July 1 at Lester Town Hall when 150 to 175 pounds of food will be distributed.
