One Friday afternoon in early September, PCC had closed for the day and staff was on the way to the parking lot. A man we did not recognize drove in and asked about getting some food. He realized that we were closed, and after some initial anger, he broke down into tears. He had recently been laid off from his job of 20 years and was very worried about his children as his food supplies…and funds…were running low. We assured him that we would be able to help him and quickly provided him with enough groceries to feed his family for at least a week. He apologized for his earlier anger and stated that he had panicked since he had never faced such circumstances before. With tears streaming down his face, he said, “I’m fine, but my children need me to take care of them.”
We see many novel situations during the pandemic, mostly fear and panic such as this man was experiencing. The PCC has been blessed to be able to keep the food pantry well-stocked, thanks to Feeding Southwest Virginia and our many church and individual donors. Our clients have become accustomed to our new procedures, calling in their needs and coming to our Tuesday and Thursday food distributions. We are happy to see long established neighbors along with many new faces receiving assistance on a regular basis. Extra bags of groceries are always on hand for unexpected arrivals at each distribution. No one leaves the PCC needing food during this critical time.