Jacquelyn loads bags filled with fresh produce, healthy shelf-stable food and frozen meat into her car at the SmartBox food pantry in Fairfax, S.C.
Phyllis Smart gives the largest room of the building at Hampton Avenue and 6th Street in Fairfax, S.C., a last once over. A row of tables runs down the center, and volunteers begin to open 50-pound bags of potatoes, pull apples from boxes and stack frozen chicken livers on carts.
They’re almost ready to serve up to 200 people at the SmartBox’s biweekly distribution, supplied by Golden Harvest Food Bank. They’re right on time; it’s almost 10 a.m. and the lobby is full of people waiting patiently, with more lining the sidewalk outside.
“Our feedings are always large,” Smart says.
The SmartBox opened in 2015 to provide children with a safe place to go in the afternoon where they could get a snack and help with school work. But staff soon realized that some of the students were very hungry – and so were their parents.
“We had our first distribution that December,” Smart recalls. “You saw people come and you were like ‘OK. This is a need.’”
The biweekly food distributions have been a staple in Fairfax – which doesn’t have its own grocery store – ever since. Those in need have come to rely on the fresh produce, meat and nonperishable pantry items it provides.
Volunteer Anne Patterson was grateful that she could come to SmartBox for help while battling cancer a few years ago.
“I used to be in that line, and there is a need for it especially when you’re living on a fixed income,” Patterson says.
Jacquelyn, an elderly community member, says she never misses coming on the first and third Thursday of the month; the food helps her balance paying medical bills with putting food on the table.
“We get dried beans and lentils and red beans,” she says. “We didn’t know what to do with them, but then they gave us recipes. Now I make soup.”
“This is really helping the community,” Jacquelyn smiles.
