Fluvanna Community Food Pantry offers food support and community

FLUVANNA COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Inside Fluvanna’s School Board building lies a community resource centered on care and providing access to food for families across Central Virginia, an effort through the Fluvanna Leaders for Race and Diversity.

“This pantry helps us a lot. This pantry is a lifesaver,” said Martha Watson, a patron of the Fluvanna Leaders for Race and Diversity Community Food Pantry.

Rows of shelves lined with food fill the space in Palmyra, giving families a place to come each week for meat, produce, pantry staples, and more. It’s a resource that began two years ago by Lorretta Morgan, director of the FLRD Community Food Pantry. Now, her team welcomes more than 100 people through the pantry’s doors each week, wearing a smile and offering a shopping cart ready to be filled with food.

“We will never turn anybody away. I don’t want to see anybody go hungry,” Morgan said. “We provide services to anyone, no matter where you’re located. It’s a choice pantry, they shop and take what they need.”

The pantry does not have a location requirement for visitors, welcoming everyone who comes through the doors experiencing need access to food.

Morgan said the need has grown since the pantry’s beginning, as volunteers work to offer food assistance families rely on amid rising costs, SNAP cuts and schools being out for the summer.

The pantry partners with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and the USDA, to bring food support to neighbors experiencing need.

“People drive a long way. Gas is expensive. People don’t have a whole lot of time when they have jobs,” volunteer Helen Schoene said. “So for those reasons, the pantry fills a need. We’re here, they come, they can get a small amount of things and get through to the next paycheck.”

The pantry operates in Fluvanna’s School Board building. Morgan said the space is just what the organization needed after losing their first location, as the pantry works to continue serving community members as they look for a larger space to house the growing resource.

“When families are strong, our communities are strong, and healthy food and being able to have something to eat is only going to make our students stronger.” said Don Stribling, assistant superintendent of administration for Fluvanna County Public Schools. “It takes a village, and that’s what you’re seeing right here today.”

Watson said the pantry and the people behind it make a big impact.

“That’s what gets us to the next phase, you know, through the next week in our life,” Watson said. “A lot of people around need food, but they don’t want to come out... I suggest anybody out there that needs help to come out, and, you know, because everybody here is so wonderful, we’ve kind of bonded. Like, we’re a family now.”

The pantry is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fluvanna County School Board building in Palmyra at 14455 James Madison Hwy. For more information on the pantry, how to volunteer, donate, or visit, click here.

To find additional information or places to access food support, you can visit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Food Finder.

“When the community comes together, we’re doing a lot to help everybody,” Morgan said. “And we just want to make sure no one is left behind.”

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