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Volunteers Sharon Ennis and Erin Knuckles with Rappahannock Food Pantry Vice President of Operations Pete Stenner tally up the over 250 boxes of dry goods and produce for Thanksgiving.
Rush River Commons taking shape
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Rappahannock Food Pantry president Penny Kardis and warehouse manager Kimmie Langlands at the pantry on Monday.
The Rush River Commons development in the Town of Washington has nearly finished its transformation from a pile of dirt to a community gathering space.
More than 50 Rappahannock Food Pantry volunteers helped pack Thanksgiving meals for 243 families over the weekend and early this week, according to pantry manager Laura Lucas. This is the food pantry’s first Thanksgiving at its new home since moving from its Sperryville location in July.
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Volunteer Sharon Ennis helps tally up the over 250 boxes of dry goods and produce for Thanksgiving.
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Rappahannock Food Pantry manager Laura Lucas, left, with President Penny Kardis, center and volunteer Steph Ridder last Monday for the Thanksgiving food pick up.
Lucas recalled that last year, pantry volunteers were packing meals in the rain and laying cardboard on the ground to help navigate the muddy grass. In their new space, volunteers are able to use the paved parking lot outside for pick up locations.
“It makes it easier for people to get to us and us to get to them, because we’re more centrally located,” Lucas said Monday. “It is going really, really smooth. It’s almost too smooth. It’s so calm that I don’t know how to explain it.”
The new pantry is located at 37 Leggett Lane in the Rush River Commons development, across from the post office. The building is 2,500 square feet larger than the former location, for a total of 4,500 square feet.
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A team of more than 50 volunteers at the new Rappahannock Food Pantry packed over 250 boxes of dry goods and produce for Thanksgiving last Saturday. Warehouse manager Kimmie Langland said, “the amount of people that came and made very light work, what we thought was going to take four hours got done in two.”
“I grew up outside of this county and outside of Virginia, and to be able to see the level of volunteerism … It certainly showed today with the amount of people that came and made very light hands of a lot of work that we thought was going to take four hours,” said pantry warehouse manager Kimmie Langlands last Saturday. “I think we got it done in an hour and a half to two hours.”
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Pantry manager Laura Lucas checks with a client picking up a Thanksgiving meal at the Rappahannock Food Pantry last Monday.
Neighboring the food pantry are office buildings, which are now home to nonprofit Rapp at Home and the Rappahannock Department of Social Services as of last week.
Tenants will begin filling the townhouses and apartments in late February or early March, according to project spokesperson Betsy Dietel. She said 95% of the interested tenants are either county residents, former residents or related to county residents.
“Since we first announced the project almost a year ago, we have had over 50 families and individuals add their names and contact information to an ‘interested’ list,” Dietel wrote in an email to the Rappahannock News. “Our new property manager (Foothills Housing Corporation) is contacting people now.”
Dietel said that while they’ve had several parties interested in the restaurant space, they have not settled on a final tenant.
“Seasonally this is a tough time to open up a new establishment as the winter will be upon us shortly,” Dietel wrote. “Nonetheless with the pantry and office buildings occupied we are confident that the right group will see this as a great home for their business.”
Dietel said that anyone interested in housing at Rush River Commons should contact the Foothills Housing Corporation: rappnews.link/rce
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