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Waynesboro: Food pantry says clients ‘have no idea’ of pending federal cuts

Crystal Graham
lifeworks adrienne and aj young waynesboro
Adrienne and A.J. Young. Submitted photo.

A Waynesboro-based pantry is looking to purchase the property it’s renting, hoping to double its size and meet the demand of people struggling with food insecurity.

The River City Bread Basket, an outreach of The LIFEworks Project, a nonprofit organization, offers a USDA and client-choice food pantry at 505 N. Winchester Ave. that opened in 2023.

The food pantry is located on church property, so up until now, the city has treated the outfit as an outreach associated with the church, though it is independent.

With their eyes set on purchasing the property, the zoning would need to be updated to allow for the independent food pantry. The property is currently zoned RG-5, or general residential, but churches throughout the city are usually granted an exemption.

“We’re going to have to pay rent anyway. Why throw money away on rent? We are really putting our faith in the people of Waynesboro, right,  to help us continue to do this work,” said LIFEworks Project Executive Director Adrienne Young.

“We see the benefit, and we see the impact on our neighbors,” she said. “We see the impact on the families that come week after week after week. We know their names, we know their children, we know what they like.”

The LIFEworks Project plans to launch a capital campaign to help pay for the building and potential expansion – if the changes to zoning are approved.

The current building is only 1,500 square feet. They would like to double the size.

The Planning Commission already gave the rezoning its stamp of approval, and the matter now goes before Waynesboro City Council for consideration.

The public hearing will take place on June 9 at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers in the Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building at 503 W. Main St. in Downtown Waynesboro.

The people ministry: ‘We help folks eat’


It’s a common misconception that the River City Bread Basket is associated with a ministry or church, but it’s not. It’s a standalone pantry not affiliated with any church.

“We try to make it clear that we’re not attached to any ministry. When people ask us what ministry we’re attached to, we say we’re attached to the people ministry. That’s what we do. We help folks eat,” said A.J. Young, the director of outreach for The LIFEworks Project..

Waynesboro already has plenty of beautiful churches, they said. They are just trying to help folks and build community. The community is changing, and the non-profit serves a diverse community with Muslims, atheists, agnostics, Catholics, Christians and more coming through the doors for food.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we are putting up any barriers to anybody that is coming to get food. I’m not going to tell you about the goodness of Jesus or Allah,” A.J. Young said.

The Youngs believe the people in Waynesboro want to help their neighbors, no matter where they are from or who they worship.

“We are neighbors who help,” Adrienne Young said. “I think that we can find the commonality in everyone, no matter what language they speak, no matter how they dress, no matter how they worship. There is no reason for us to make it harder than it already is.”

Love for the East Side of Waynesboro


The pantry, situated on the East Side of Waynesboro, has proven to be the perfect location for their needs, A.J. Young said.

While A.J. and Adrienne hail from the Hampton Roads area, they have been in Waynesboro for more than three decades now.

“What I’ve learned is that the East Side has never really gotten a lot of love,” A.J. Young said. “Just talking with folks that have been in that area for years, they say we’ve never had anything like this on this side of town.

“We bring some love and joy to the East Side,” he said. “The number of people that have come to depend on us being there is pretty overwhelming. We’re serving a little over 500 people a month in that space which is pretty incredible in such a short time.”

Federal government’s impact on food insecurity


river city bread basket produce pantry
River City Bread Basket. Image courtesy The LIFEworks Project.

On average, the pantry is signing up 10 new families each week, and the number is expected to grow as the federal government takes aim at low-income resources including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

As part of a budget reconciliation plan passed by U.S. House republicans, the bill would reduce spending for SNAP by $267 billion over 10 years. SNAP recipients include senior citizens, the disabled, single-parent households and others struggling to make ends meet.

The bill has advanced to the U.S. Senate and is likely to undergo numerous edits, however, the River City Bread Basket founders said that families are already reporting that their benefits have been reduced or eliminated.

“We have already seen an uptick in the number of people who are coming by for food,” said Adrienne Young. “We’ve already had some clients tell us that their SNAP benefits have been cut completely, or at least greatly reduced, and this is ahead of changes that may come in September.”

While there may be uncertainty in the exact budget bill that will be approved, Adrienne told AFP she doesn’t see what is coming as hypothetical at all.

“I believe it is very real,” she said. “I think the big tsunami of change is going to come in September, but we have seen reports from some of our clients who have told us that out of the blue, their SNAP benefits have been cut or greatly reduced, and that’s a very real thing.”

People have ‘no idea what is about to happen’


The changes at the federal level are, in part, driving the duo to make the move for permanency.

“We are not going to abandon our neighbors and our friends who need us,” Adrienne Young said. “We have a very real understanding of how things will probably flow, and we would much rather get ahead of it by making preparations for permanency in that space and by putting our shoulders to the grindstone with our neighbors while they live out this very real circumstance that is going to have a ripple effect throughout our communities.

“Just because it’s not happening to you doesn’t mean it’s not going to have an effect on you. I think that’s where some folks in the community are missing the mark.”

Many of the people who frequent the pantry have no idea about the potential federal cuts that could lead to the loss of insurance, food stamps and SNAP benefits for many families.

“In speaking with some of our clients, they have no idea what is about to happen. Most of them have no idea about what the ensuing months are going to bring to their pocketbooks, to their budgets,” A.J. Young told AFP. “It’s unfortunate. We’re doing the best that we can, but I think folks are in for a very rude awakening. In the last quarter of this year, it’s gonna get real. It really is.”

Adrienne Young reinforced that the decisions being made in Washington have real impacts on families throughout the nation – those here legally or not.

“It is easy to dismiss nameless, faceless numbers on a page, but when a mother and her child, or a senior citizen or a refugee, is looking you in the face and asking you for food, it’s hard to say no. It’s so much easier to do it from behind a desk, or to look at a piece of paper and make a decision about something that is going to impact people’s lives.

“I would challenge anybody to come to the Bread Basket and stand and look at the line of people out there who are waiting for food and pick out the ones who don’t deserve to eat that day. Come and look in the face of a family and say, you know what, you don’t look like you belong here, you don’t get any food. Say that to a mother. Say it to that child.

“It’s easy to reduce people to the ink on a page,” she said. “It is harder, so much harder, and I have to believe impossible, for someone with any type of heart, to turn away somebody looking for basic needs – for shelter, for food, for safety.”

The River City Bread Basket is open Thursdays from 4:30 – 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.


Crystal Graham

Crystal Graham

Crystal Abbe Graham is the regional editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1999 graduate of Virginia Tech, she has worked for 25 years as a reporter and editor for several Virginia publications, written a book, and garnered more than a dozen Virginia Press Association awards for writing and graphic design. She was the co-host of "Viewpoints," a weekly TV news show, and co-host of Virginia Tonight, a nightly TV news show on PBS. Her work on "Virginia Tonight" earned her a national Telly award for excellence in television.