Nan Holbrook Griswold, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, receives a gift from DeAnne Warren (right), director of the Solid Rock Food Closet.

Food closet honors volunteers at March 30 luncheon in Sparta

Volunteers of the Solid Rock Food Closet were honored March 30 during a luncheon held at Sparta United Methodist Church. The keynote speaker at the event was Nan Holbrook Griswold, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina.

The audience was welcomed by DeAnne Warren, the director of Solid Rock Food Closet, who thanked the food bank volunteers for their service to the members of the community. As of March 30, the food bank had 203 volunteers on its roster.

“That’s how many people who have signed in and worked at the food closet this past year,” she said. “They’ve logged over 3,100 hours and that does not even include the time that has been spent picking up food at the food bank in Winston-Salem, picking up food every day at Lowes Foods and Food Lion, sorting that food, (holding) fund-raisers, (and) yard sales. All of these are things we do to keep the food closet going here in Alleghany County. One of the things that I think is really impressive is in 2005, we served 6,195 people at the food closet. You serve the equivalent of 74,952 meals. That’s how much food has come in and out of that place. I think it’s really a miraculous thing. We’re currently feeding about 5 percent of the population of Alleghany County. We’re serving on average 596 and 600 people a month. When you’ve got a county that has 10,000 people, that’s a lot of people.”

In November 2005, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Winston-Salem presented the Solid Rock Food Closet with the Exemplary Agency Award, for its service to Alleghany County. Showing the star-topped plaque to the volunteers, emotion was apparent in Warren’s as she said, “You are all truly stars serving as instructed by our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m honored to call you friends and appreciate all you do. Without you, we could not do these good works.”

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