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Louisa Food Pantry a Model for the Nation

RADIO IQ

As the federal government has cut back on social services, one county in Virginia has stepped up – creating a model for the nation – a program that offers everything from food and companionship to prom dresses and dental care.

Charity is nothing new in Louisa County.  It’s had an emergency food program since the 60’s.

"As a child I used to go with my parents to deliver food in that program," recalls Lloyd Runnett. " I thought you’d get a tickle out of that."

Runnett is now  executive director of the area’s Resource Council, which has grown dramatically to meet incredible need.  Of the county’s 36,000 people, nearly a third are what social workers call food insecure.

"Ten percent really don’t know where the next meal is coming from," Runnett explains. "Just over 12%  sort of know, but it’s not secure, -and about 8-9% are basically living paycheck to paycheck, so if something happens to the car we have a problem. "

This man, a retired auto mechanic, can fix his car, but he can't always afford groceries.

"Because I'm disabled.  I can't work, and what pension I get doesn't cover everything.
 

So Runnette, with a staff of two and dozens of volunteers, has built the community's food pantry into the largest in the state.  Supplies comes from federal programs and from the Walmart Distribution Center which sends truckloads of unsold fruit and vegetables – some of it unfamiliar to rural people raised with corn and beans.  Now their fridges contain kumquats and starfruit, avocados and spaghetti squash.

Enter the University of Virginia’s school of nursing, where a public health course, taught by Professor Vicky Southhall, supplies student labor.

"One of the very first groups of students started making information sheets about each of those fruits and vegetables. They had color pictures and told them how to keep them and how to know when they were ripe and how to cook them and then gave some recipes," she explains.

The students are also available to check blood pressure and blood sugar.  Peyton Burrow recalls one man who had diabetes.

"He came in saying he was feeling kind of off,  and he asked us to do his blood sugar test, and so we tested it, and it was actually pretty high outside the normal range,  but he was saying, ‘Oh wow, that looks great,’ because his normal range was twice that," she says.

She and fellow student Nathaniel Henderson take time to explain medical conditions to people who may not have caught every detail the first time around.

"When people go and see a doctor, when people go into the hospital they have to process a lot of information all at one time.  Maybe you just learned that you have diabetes, so your mind is trying to process the fact that you have  this.  Then they’re telling you  all the medications you’re going to take – when you’re going to take them,  how to take them," he says.

The students also did research on the community’s dental needs.  More than half of those surveyed had not seen a dentist in the last year – among them 82-year-old Clara.  She lives on just over $700 a month and takes expensive medication to prevent another stroke.

"One of the medicines I take is Eliquist.  That’s a thousand dollars or something every three months."

Which leaves no money for dental care.

“I don’t have but four teeth in my head, but I got two that needs to be pulled," she says. 

Fortunately, the Resource Center has started a new program in partnership with six area dentists – funded by grants and private donations.  It offers people like Clara vouchers worth $500 in dental care.

And last but not least the center helps fill Cinderella’s Closet – a place at the high school where girls can get free, gently-used dresses for prom.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief