Starting in 2011 when I was diagnosed with cancer, my fortune has taken a turn for the worse. Among other things, my income is so low that I’m eligible to get free food from food banks here in town. Haven’t really found much food that I can eat at any of the pantries though.
The first time I went, I was surprised at the ease of registering and being able to shop, that part was nice. The food though? Not much that I was familiar with. Shelf after shelf of canned and boxed food, ramen noodles, 2 shelfs of pastries and for some reason a shelf with cooked pizza from a pizza chain.
I picked a couple of cans of low sodium peas and some tuna and left. Now, for those who think I should have taken whatever and been happy to have it, well, if I was starving, I might. I was only hungry though, without much money for food and no money for doctors' visits that I would have had to make due to eating food I was allergic to, or with too much sodium.
The next food pantry that I tried had me fill out several forms and meet with someone from the church (I think most food pantries here are in churches).
We had a mini counseling session where the upshot was that if I let the lord into my life, I’d have success and all the money I needed for food. I took some canned tuna, a loaf of white bread and didn’t go back there again.
Another pantry I tried did have frozen veggies, bags of apples, and some packages of brown rice and Quinoa. That was great, but they grabbed my hand, formed a circle and prayed with or about me before I left. I didn’t go back there either.
So, when I heard that a candidate running for HD-81 in Henrico County, Virginia, had a Master of Divinity, and had helped start a food pantry for students at VCU, well, let’s just say, I thought that was nice, but was not over the moon impressed.
Until I talked to him that is. Terrence Walker, the candidate running for the seat in the newly drawn 81st district. You can bet I had a lot of questions to ask him about how the pantry was run, and what kind of food was distributed.
Terrence Walker on the left, at the Ram Pantry.
Silly me, Terrence Walker is the guy who distributed fresh fruit and veggies to barber shops in VA, as a way of promoting wellness. In that same way, he found space and equipment for the pantry and organized a group of students to run it as a student organization.
The Ram Pantry is not at all like the pantries I’ve been to. This is Terrence Walker we’re talking about. He wanted students to have fresh food to cook healthy meals. He made sure to partner with an organic farm so that they have fresh veggies and fruits.
Just a sample of some of what they have at the Ram Pantry.
And yeah, they have Ramen noodles, but they teach students how to eat them. Take the sodium packet out and add in tomatoes and onions and garlic from the fresh produce section.
Terrence Walker was recognized by Terry McAuliffe, in 2015, for creating Ram Pantry. The pantry as we know it today is a VCU student-run pantry for students experiencing food insecurity. Terrence Walker has also been a coordinator of the Pantry. www.dailykos.com/...
Food Lion partnered with the Ram Pantry and was so impressed with that they asked VCU to be the role model for colleges near the company's headquarters in NC.
Over 100 students visit the Pantry weekly.
Across the country 20% to 50% of college students experience food insecurity. At VCU the number is closer to 57%. Large numbers of college students are homeless. Terrence Walker knows this; he makes it his business to care about the people around him, he practices his religious beliefs in all his affairs. He says: “We are made in the image of God; feeding hungry people is our way of showing that we respect God’s image”. If he ran a food bank in my state, my cupboard would be full!
There is so much more to Terrence Walker, and I’ll write again soon. In the meantime, please click on his website and social media below. If you like what you’ve read here and what you read there, stay tuned. In the meantime, click on his donate button. Please donate if you can, even if $2. The $1 and $2 donations that come from all over the country are actually the most valuable.
