The Chesterfield Food Bank’s largest distribution site sits on approximately 3 acres on Iron Bridge Road, and on a cold Friday night, cars were lined up to the back of a large warehouse where volunteers were ready to distribute baskets of food.
“Once the holidays kick in, the season kicks in, we get roughly 700 [cars] easily,” said volunteer David Chase.
Even though some distributions begin around 4:30 p.m., some of those cars — as Chase points out — arrived shortly after 9 a.m.
“This is a sad reality of what our community is facing and what our neighbors are facing,” said Nicholas Jenkins, the food bank’s director of community outreach. “Food insecurity is so great that these people are willing to wait hours and hours in order to get food.”
On the afternoon VPM News visited, dozens of volunteers were being trained at the front door on how to fill grocery carts full of greens, starches and meats. According to volunteers, roughly half of the food bank’s clients are migrants who are coming from all throughout the county.
“People are struggling to put food on the table to buy gifts,” said Sarah Buckley, who started volunteering at the food bank when the COVID-19 pandemic started. “Everything is much harder now. This is a way to help people who otherwise might not have dinner on the table tonight.”
The Chesterfield Food Bank serves about 5,000 households countywide through a variety of programs, and the nonprofit operates four food distribution sites that serve about 2.5 million meals annually. It also has an outreach arm that connects people to other services.
“This could look like getting people connected to mental health treatment, drug rehabilitation, workforce programs, job training, resume building and how to navigate government services that they may be qualified for, but may not know how to access,” Jenkins said.
The food bank hopes to double its warehouse and distribution space off Iron Bridge Road within the next three years, and plans on holding a capital campaign to fund it.
