Photo courtesy of Nelda Pearson

Low-income families can get food twice a week from this tent in the Radford fire station parking lot. The service is made possible by area agencies, businesses and organizations.

Every Monday and Friday, members of between 60 and 90 low-income households "shop" for groceries from a small tent in the parking lot of the Radford fire station.

Who's putting this food source together? A better question might be who's not involved?

In late May, Jerry Higgins of Radford/Fairlawn Daily Bead made contact with the local Walmart to obtain food that was moving off the shelf to the Dumpster.

Corporate headquarters for Walmart had developed a plan with Second Harvest/Feeding America to provide food for food pantries and kitchens.

Higgins brought this food source to the Food Group (a coalition of several food pantries in Radford) to discuss distribution options. Beans and Rice and the Radford City Department of Social Services took the responsibility to immediately distribute the food on delivery days.

The project outgrew the department's parking lot in two weeks.

Lee Simpkins, Radford fire chief, offered his large side parking lot, the use of fire stations coolers and the fire station freezer.

By mid-June, a system had evolved for setting up the tent "store" and receiving, unpacking and sorting the food for placement on tables for distribution.

Vicky Collins, director of the city's social services, several staff members and I start setting up the store at 10 a.m. for distribution at 11 a.m.

By late July, it was clear that demand was far exceeding supply, so we started looking for other sources of food.

Becky Hawke, Radford spokeswoman, put out a call for surplus produce from home gardens on the public access Web site.

Doris Hendrickson put the same call in the Presbyterian Church bulletin as did Jean Umberger with Central Methodist.

In August, the mother of Kayla Peery, a Beans and Rice VISTA worker, sent word that produce was available from growers through the Society of St. Andrew.

Beans and Rice registered with the society. Once a week, Beans and Rice staffers travel to Hillsville to get 15 to 30 bushels of fresh-from-the fields produce.

At the same time, Lydia Warren of First Baptist and her group of volunteers started harvesting potatoes from the church garden developed specifically to provide food for city food pantries.

Bushels of potatoes arrived each Monday and Friday. Produce is pre-bagged by staff for distribution.

Since the first week of October, just as these seasonal food sources were drying up, Wade's in Radford has been providing meat products twice a week.

In the meantime, Collins did a presentation to Radford Rotary on the food distribution project.

The Rotary received a $1,500 district matching grant to provide some supplies for the project, including additional tents.

Beans and Rice has sent two grant applications to the Community Foundation of the New River Valley for funds for reusable grocery bags and funds for gas for trips to Hillsville.

The project goes through 300 or more plastic bags and 50 to 100 brown paper bags per week.

Beans and Rice is also seeking a pickup truck that can safely make the more than 100-mile round trip to get food.

Currently, the project is borrowing a van from the Radford Church of God in Christ.

The department of social service's aging SUV has been pressed into service to store and haul tents, tables, chairs and a flip chart to and from the fire station.

-- Nelda Pearson, Executive Director, Beans and Rice Inc.