While the economy remains in shambles, needy families in Carroll County can at least take solace in the fact that food is available at the Community Food Panty at First United Methodist Church of Hillsville.

On March 3, the local food pantry received the largest donation coordinators Al and Shirley Gill have seen in this area in the two years they’ve been volunteering with the project. As part of a food drive to commemorate Pride in Food Service Workers, employees of Trinity Mission of Hillsville, LLC divided up into four teams to collect non-perishable and canned food items during the month of February. In all, the local establishment collected 4,963 food items for the Food Pantry, which distributes the food to needy families in Carroll County. The donation was so large, Shirley Gill said it took seven pick-up loads to transfer all the food across the road from Trinity Mission.

“We are so blessed. We appreciate all we can get,” she said. “It’s all put to good use. Nothing goes to waste.”

During the food drive, Trinity Mission team members accepted monetary donations, held bake sales, hot dog sales, sausage biscuit sales and a lasagna dinner to raise money for their teams, along with setting up collection boxes throughout the community and regions where employees live. As part of the food drive, each member of the winning Trinity Mission team will receive a gift certificate to Subway. Members of the winning team are Lisa Belton, Rebecca Odum, Nancy King, Wanda Humphrey, Lloyd Williams, Fran Funk, Wanda Marshall, Heidi McLennan, Mary Testerman, Wilma Enfield, Jessica Griffin, Katrina Dalton, Tammy Kinder, Bernice Ellis, Ruby Cook, Pat Horton, Kim Golding, Jennifer Littreal, Judy Basham.

Trinity Mission would like to thank everyone in the community that helped make their food drive a success.

“The community has been so supportive of Trinity Mission of Hillsville, LLC that we felt a need to give back to our community, especially in this time of economical hardship,” said Rebecca Phillips, Administrator of Trinity Mission of Hillsville, LLC. “We hope our contribution of food will help some of those in need.”

The Gills said sorting and organizing the massive donation would be at least a two-day job. But it’s something the couple, who’ve worked with food pantries for over 20 years before moving to Hillsville two years ago, feel compelled to do in the name of Jesus Christ.

“It’s just a way we can serve and it’s something we feel we should do,” Shirley Gill said.

The Community Food Pantry at FUMC is the brainchild of the Carroll County Ministerial Association, a group of ministers from various churches around the area, to work together for the needs of the community. Bill Webb, a volunteer at the Methodist church, said the food pantry was set up at FUMC several years ago under the direction of Ina Horton before the Gills took over in November.

Numerous volunteers from FUMC and other churches help keep the shelves of the Community Food Pantry stocked, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when referrals for needy families come in from the Department of Social Services.

“Most of our referrals come through Social Services. They are aware of the families in the community who are in need of help, and quite often it really has to do with families who are applying for food stamps,” Webb said. “There is usually a lag between application and the food stamps, so they send people over. Social Services will continue to make referrals and the same families usually come back on a quarterly basis, but we will take referrals from any of the pastors or community leaders if they are aware of family situations of people in need.”

Generally, the church doesn’t see many people walking in the door to ask for food, although it does happen on occasion.

“When it does happen we usually get Social Services involved because if they are coming to us they probably have other needs and we want to make sure Social Services is aware and can provide additional support,” Webb said. “The Food Pantry is intended for residents of Carroll County and the Town of Hillsville. Every now and then we get someone from Galax and Grayson County, and we regrettably turn them away and toward resources in their community. We just can’t be everything for everybody.”

With the economy taking a nosedive over the past couple of years, Webb said the Community Food Pantry witnessed about double the demand for its services between 2008 and 2009. When large donations such as the Trinity Mission gift come in, the Food Pantry is stocked full. Other times, especially after the Thanksgiving and Christmas donations are gone, the pantry can get lean.

“It’s an ebb and flow. Right now, especially with what came from Trinity Mission, we are extremely blessed. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are always large donations,” Webb said. “We do take financial donations and have them banked with the idea that a lot of donations tend to be limited items and we have to supplement by purchasing other things so food bags can be balanced.”

When receiving a referral, Webb said the food pantry will try to find out about the family make-up. If there are young children involved, efforts are made to include kid-friendly items such as Spaghetti-Os. For families with infants, volunteers will provide diapers if they are needed.

“Generally everything we have is non-perishable, but we have one exception, deer that is donated through the Hunters for the Hungry program,” Webb said. “This past fall we had an overwhelmingly generous number of donations.”

So much so, that volunteers had to solicit the donation of an upright freezer to accommodate more than 200 pounds of frozen venison. The freezer has come in handy, Webb said, as Dennis Ward recently donated 60 more pounds of deer meat. Most of the venison is ground beef and is frozen in two-pound packets. Typically, though, the Community Food Pantry doesn’t deal in items that have to be frozen, such as milk, or perishable items such as bread.

“Every once and a while we receive donations of fresh produce. A gentleman from Fancy Gap gave us almost his entire garden in potatoes, and some of the produce markets will give us bananas and apples and oranges. We try to get those out as quickly as we can,” Webb said, “but we don’t encourage large donations of perishable items because we can’t predict the rate of things going out and we hate to take something that gets wasted.”