The Farmville Area Community Emergency Services (F.A.C.E.S) was founded in 1981, and 2016 marks 35 years in operation. They have had five different locations, and countless volunteers since F.A.C.E.S opened its doors. With people helping to unload food trucks and volunteers filling bags of non- perishable items, F.A.C.E.S is always considered one of the busiest places to be in Farmville.
F.A.C.E.S is a food closet for those who live in areas that obtain a Prince Edward county zip code. However serving such surrounding counties, F.A.C.E.S never lacks a volunteer. Longwood University students who enjoy serving the community attend F.A.C.E.S weekly to lend a helping hand. One organization in particular who is always willing to help is the service based brotherhood, Alpha Phi Omega (APO). Madeline Earles, the APO fundraising chair, works closely with F.A.C.E.S to make sure they have plenty of help each week.
“We try and go every Thursday afternoon and bag non-perishable foods like cans, fruit, cookies, cereal, and help bag meats and sweep the floor. Then on Saturdays, we help to bag extra stuff for the people as well as load shopping carts to take and load into a person’s car,” said Earles.
In regards to how many brothers help, in that last three to four weeks APO has had about 10-12 brothers volunteer.
Earles stated, “I love going to F.A.C.E.S because I love the idea of helping people who are less fortunate then I am and it makes me see the world a little differently, that being a part of something can potentially make their day a bit better.”
However, there is a lot of work that goes in to lining up the volunteers as well as clients.
Bobby Eiban is the Operations Director and vice president of F.A.C.E.S. Eiban has been with F.A.C.E.S for five years now and is in charge of overseeing volunteers, ordering food, as well as maintaining the trucks and building.
On a weekly basis, F.A.C.E.S receives about 50 volunteers, 500 pounds of food, and has over 800 clients to serve. Some donors of food include local grocery stores such as Food Lion and Walmart. Those stores donate items that they are not able to stock on the shelves such as dented cans and opened boxes.
“We then weigh the food in order to keep a record of how much we are getting per week and send the numbers to Feed More,” said Eiban.
In regards to becoming a client there is an application and interview process if a client wants to continue to come to F.A.C.E.S on a weekly basis.
“We use the government guidelines of USDA as far as when you’re looking at how they qualify from income. We are a little stricter on things because the USDA program is self-declaration, meaning you just have to take whatever they say. Whereas here we actually check them out and prove they are who they say they are, they have to provide ID, proof of income, proof of residence and identification of individuals within a household,” said Eiban.
Eiban explained they have such a rigorous application process because they have had problems in the past and they just want to make things fair and truthful.
“We enjoy working with the Longwood students and it is very helpful when they come,” stated Eiban.
With that being said Longwood University prides themselves on raising citizen leaders. Earles believes, “I think a lot of other organizations want to come help F.A.C.E.S all the time and I think a lot of them take their (experiences) back to their organizations and it inspires people to want to help more.”
