Nov. 22—Barbara Painter, emergency nutrition director for the Fayette County-based Southern Appalachian Labor School, reminds us of the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
While a delivery of about 36,000 pounds of the fruit received in Oak Hill on Tuesday won’t put a few doctors out of work, it will at least contribute positively to the health and enjoyment of a crowd of local people.
A semi-trailer truck loaded with apples from West Virginia arrived from the eastern panhandle at the Southern Appalachian Labor School’s Historic Oak Hill School on Tuesday, November 19. According to SALS officials, this was one of the largest distributions organized by The Farmlink Project in Los Angeles, California.
The apples were grown in orchards around Martinsburg and picked by migrants, SALS officials said. They were provided at no cost to families as part of the SALS West Virginia Persistent Poverty Hunger and Health Project for the Fayette Thanksgiving Dinner Program, community groups throughout the county, SALS food banks, rural families and other coordinated efforts.
The unloading, collection and distribution of apples went so smoothly on Tuesday that the majority of the apples were gone as of Wednesday.
“Groceries and everything are so expensive right now,” Painter said. “Apples, if you price them, are very expensive.
“And everyone we’ve talked to to say that we’ve received this truckload of apples is very excited. They’re saying, ‘We can make an apple pie for Thanksgiving or Christmas, or we can do this.’ I have a group that is going to put them in their candy bags in the northern part of our province, and the low-income children and everyone in that area will get them.”
Remote coal camp communities in Fayette County and nearby areas are labeled as “persistent poverty” by the USDA and classified as “distressed” by the Appalachian Regional Commission, according to John David, volunteer director of SALS. The aim of the project is to provide nutritious food for better health to families in need, with an emphasis on children, the elderly and people with disabilities, he said.
“I think this means doing our best to make sure people have healthy, nutritious food during the holidays, in the spirit of what happened when the coal companies donated fruit to coal camps and miners’ families for a very long time. ago,” said David. “Given that we are a country that has persistent poverty and because we are a distressed country according to the USDA and the Appalachian Regional Commission, I think the people here, especially in the rural areas that don’t have transportation or are elderly and disabled, are dependent on heavy on foods that are not nutritious, snack foods, and providing an alternative to them is a very important thing to improve health care in the area we serve.”
SALS senior associate Artie Mullins completed a “critically acclaimed” pen and ink drawing detailing the past practices of mining companies during the holidays, David noted.
Joe Webb, AmeriCorps volunteer coordinator at SALS, said laying the groundwork for the shipment of apples to arrive took some effort. “We had to figure out the logistics for their arrival and how they would be stored,” he said. “We’ve gone through some of the logistics of it and it looks like it’s a lot of apples. But we’ve started making calls. We’ve got fire departments coming, we’ve got churches coming. We’re going to save some to give away with our Thanksgiving meals that we help distribute.”
“I’ve never seen so many apples in my life,” he said of the shipment, which contained 48 pallets. “So I’m just trying to take in the whole scene now.”
“I think it will benefit everyone in this area,” Webb added.
The apples are not for resale, but can be used by families, churches, organizations and others for cooking, distribution or other purposes.
Minden resident Leonard Bickford was among those on site Tuesday to pick up a shipment of apples. He got help loading his truck from John Webb and Tom Painter. The apples were destined for the Sand Branch Worship Center.
“I like to help people because when I grew up in a small town called Beckwith, Fayette County, West Virginia, I was poor, but I didn’t know it,” Bickford said. “There were a lot of people in the area where I lived who were like that, and we helped each other.
‘I didn’t have much to eat. My family consisted of eight boys and four girls. My father worked at the sawmill and earned eight dollars a day. Think about feeding a family like that on eight dollars a day.”
“I like to give people things,” Bickford said. “We depended on people, they gave us what they called ‘the last of their gardens’ and we took what was left from people’s gardens, and mom and grandma could do it, and we lived on that, plus the garden we have raised.
“That’s why I like to give things to people. It makes me feel good because…God has been good to me and blessed me over the years, and I’m 75 years old and I’m still giving.”
Danny Critchley, a member of the Danese Volunteer Fire Department, was among those collecting apples on Tuesday.
“Every year we do an event we call the Santa Claus Ride,” said Critchley, who rode away with two pallets of apples. “One of our firefighters dresses up as Santa Claus, we put lights on the truck and we make treat bags. Usually there are about 750 to 800 of them, and we go around the community and hand out those treats to little kids and let them see Santa Claus.
“It’s a really good experience. Everyone enjoys it.”
That project starts on December 14 this year.
SALS is hosting its December food pantry on December 6 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. For more information, call Painter at 1-304-673-6370.
Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Facebook.
