Charlotte County residents have seen a need fulfilled by the establishment of the County Line Farmville Area Community Emergency Services (FACES) Food Pantry.

FACES President Dr. Ellery Sedgwick said the organization first opened its satellite distribution site, County Line FACES, in 2014. The facility is located at 12122 County Line Road.

“Our registrar, Linda Satkowski, noticed that there were not a lot of distributions to addresses in the southern portion of Prince Edward or the northern portion of Charlotte,” said Sedgwick.
He said they learned from Central Virginia Food Bank, which is now called FeedMore, that Charlotte is an area where there is a considerable need not being met.

“So, Linda and FACES, generally, started working with four … Presbyterian churches in that area down by County Line (Road) and they expressed an interest in setting up a food bank there,” he explained.

Sedgwick said many of those in need “live deep, deep in the country and they really can’t go as far as Richmond or Farmville, but they need this food.”

Sedgwick said eventually both sides decided that it would be strongest if the County Line Road Food Bank became part of FACES.

“So, we have a memorandum of understanding between FACES and County Line FACES.” Sedgwick said. “FACES supplies a good bit of the resources, and County Line FACES supplies all of the volunteer labor to make it go.”

Recently, Sedgwick said, those involved learned the food pantry is meeting the need as distribution has jumped to just over 200 households a week.

Many new participants signed up, he said, and some who had been going to the Farmville site began using the County Line FACES because of its proximity to their homes.

“People who had not wanted to travel the distance of over 20 miles to come to Farmville started picking up there,” Sedgwick said.

Now the site serves between 200 and 250 people a week, according to Sedgwick.

Though this is the only service FACES provides in Charlotte, Sedgwick said that could change soon.

Over the last year, FACES and FeedMore have become partners to create a distribution hub.

Sedgwick said they “noticed a low distribution and high need in eight counties in the southwest region, including everywhere from Prince Edward down to Hallifax.”

FeedMore asked FACES to help increase distributions in the eight-county area substantially by creating a storage and transportation hub in Prince Edward to serve the area and distribute food, especially produce. The proposal would ensure counties receive food in a timely manner without the requirement of refrigeration.

“We are still working with them to make that happen,” Sedgwick said.

He said the FACES collaboration with County Line FACES has been similar to the involvement FACES will have with food pantries across the region once the hub has been completed, “except that in the case of County Line FACES, it’s really a part of our FACES.”

“We raise money for it and we allocate money to support it. We cannot do that for every agency in eight counties,” Sedgwick said. “What we can do is … store food for them and to deliver it at appropriate times for distribution in their area.”

To learn more about FACES, visit www.facesfoodpantry.com, call (434) 392-6277 or email facesfarmville@gmail.com.