Pittsylvania County is con-sidering whether to donate land to a local food bank.
The Board of Supervisors must hold a public hearing before the donation is made to the Northern Pittsylvania County Food Center Inc., a nonprofit organization. The property, located at the former Gretna Middle School, is being surveyed as county officials are unsure of the size of the land being considered, said County Administrator Dan Sleeper.
The county school board gave the land, including the school, to the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors when the school closed, said Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram. The Board of Supervisors later sold the school to Riverview Plumbing, but didn’t sell the old football field, Ingram said.
The Northern Pittsylvania County Food Center would like to construct a warehouse on the property for use as a food distribution center, said Ray Hershman, the food bank’s purchasing agent. The site would be appropriate for the organization, Ingram said.
“This is such an obvious good fit for that property,” Ingram said.
The food bank operates out of the Weal Presbyterian Church building west of Chat-ham and distributes food from there to needy families north of Tightsqueeze, Hershman said. The center has up to 130 volunteers and hands out food to families every month, including the fourth Friday of each month at the American Legion hall in Gretna. The nonprofit gave out 110,000 pounds of food last year, Hershman said.
The Northern Pittsylvania County Food Center, once part of God’s Storehouse, branched off from the organization in 1997 to serve the upper part of the county, Hershman said. The organization gets its food from a variety of sources, including local churches, food drives and donations. The food bank also purchases some of its food and obtains it from a food bank in Salem, Hershman said.
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