President of FACES, Ellery Sedgwick, said Longwood students play a pivotal role in the amount of food distribution each week.
Farmville’s local food pantry, FACES, is moving from its current location at North South Street to Commerce Road next to the Southside Virginia Family YMCA, according to President of FACES Ellery Sedgwick.
According to Sedgwick, reasons for the relocation include inadequate sizing of the building and rotting in the floors due to recurring flooding.
“The building that we are currently in is an oil storage building down below Green Front (Furniture) and we’ve been flooded two times this year and had another near-flood that caused another evacuation,” said Sedgwick.
In April 2018, FACES obtained a $400,000 grant through Feed More, a hunger-relief organization that distributes to 34 counties in Central Virginia and one of FACES’ main food suppliers, due to the food pantry’s “good volunteer force”, per Sedgwick.
The grant has allowed the organization to partner with W A Stratton Construction Company and to construct a building plan that includes a 50-car parking lot and a 7,000 square foot building.
“The whole operation has expanded tremendously and we just need a much larger building to service all of our programs,” said Sedgwick.
Per Sedgwick, roughly 55 volunteers help FACES a week when Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College are in session for the academic year. Sedgwick added that students play a pivotal role in their success of feeding an average of 1,070 individuals weekly.
“Longwood students are an essential part of our volunteer base. FACES could not effectively serve as many without them,” said Sedgwick.
Since Longwood students typically walk to the current location, Sedgwick said a transportation system is a possibility to get students to the new area.
“Our new location would probably make it necessary to find a ride,” said Sedgwick. “If this proves to be a problem we might try to arrange transportation.”
Per Sedgwick, FACES serves an average of 435 households in Farmville a week and distributed a total of 1,383,389 pounds of produce and food in 2017 and 2018.
Gerald Spates, town manager of Farmville, said that FACES has made a big impact on the town since it first began.
“It’s really helped a lot, especially with the people that are underemployed and making minimum wage, they provide a tremendous service,” said Spates.
The town of Farmville owns the current building that FACES is located in and has had a key role in the expansion, according to Spates. Spates added that he believes the new location will help FACES grow and reach more families.
“I think they will have better access, the distribution part will go a lot smoother and a lot faster, and they will have better access to the facility,” Spates said.
Per Spates, Farmville has greatly appreciated the efforts of FACES since its opening, and they look forward to what comes next for the program.
“I think it’s great that all these people volunteer to work down there, I think it’s very rewarding,” said Spates. “It’s amazing what they do and the time they give up for it, it’s a lot of community support.”
Sedgwick hopes to get construction started the week of April 15, 2019 and said in roughly five months the building should be completed.
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