MONTGOMERY CO., Va. – On Monday, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce announced it was teaming up with Feeding Southwest Virginia for a food drive to support those in need in the New River Valley.
“This is going to be a food drive that will go until Nov. 7,” said Steve Baffuto, CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. “There’s about 5,000 families that need services in Montgomery County through SNAP. And with that possible disruption in service, we want to make sure those food banks are stocked and available for whatever’s needed.”
“Food insecurity is a big, big problem in this area,” said Robbie Hockett, general manager of Bull & Bones. “We’re trying to help out wherever we can. Be a good part of the community, be helpful wherever possible.”
In just three days, a dozen businesses responded to the chamber’s call for help.
“I got an email from the chamber, and they said they were handing out donation boxes for anyone that wanted to partner up and take part in the food drive,” Hockett said. “And it seemed like a no-brainer for us.”
“When I sent out the email to all of our members, I immediately got responses back — how can we help?” Baffuto said. “And every day we get more and more people stopping by and saying, Hey, can I get a box and put it in my location to help with the effort?”
“We talked as a staff and said, Hey, what do we think about doing this? Everybody was like, yeah, we are on board with that,” said Tim Colley, owner of Colley Architects. “It’s a natural thing. We’re right downtown, so we can hit up all the other merchants in town.”
Feeding Southwest Virginia is on the same page with the chamber about where the food should go.
“When I spoke to their director this morning, he said that anything we get will go to Montgomery County food banks, or even the New River Valley,” Baffuto said. “So whatever is brought in, whatever we can gather, it’s going to go and support the New River Valley.”
“I think that we always want to see the fruits of our labor, for lack of a better term and no pun intended,” Colley said. “But that what we’re doing locally affects our neighbors. I think it’s in general a very giving community and region.”
With the SNAP program running out of money in a few days, every donation can make a real difference. For more information click here.