Will rock out for food

The Verona Community Food Pantry, a 100-percent volunteer organization, is working to help people manage through these tough economic times. But as with other organizations, sometimes the helper needs help too.

Enter Stone Fisher. A single father of two boys, Fisher has been a musician all his life.

And he wanted to give back.

One quick phone call to Carolyn and Dan Shifflet at Eli’s Fun Center in Verona and the rest will be rock ’n’ roll history, as they say.

“Stone Fisher called to use the venue,” Carolyn Shifflet said. “He’s the one who set up all the bands and the sound system they’re bringing in.”
Eli’s has been open about one-and-a-half years.

The concert, scheduled from noon to midnight Dec. 21, will host a variety of teen and adult bands, even though the venue is a known hangout for kids.
“Normally we have teen deejays on Saturday nights. We have Matt Rich and Alisa Byers,” Shifflet said. “Other times we have people who schedule birthday parties.”

Eli’s also caters to younger children with its array of inflatables and arcade games.
The Shifflets consider themselves lucky.

“We both grew up poorer [than we are today]. We’ve never had to go to the Food Pantry. But our parents did,” Shifflet said. “My husband’s always worked two jobs. He wanted things to be better for us and our children.”

Fisher likes the layout of Eli’s for a concert venue.

“They’ve done a good job with the place,” Fisher said. “It wasn’t hard to get these guys together. It gives the younger guys a chance for some experience playing with the older guys.”

Fisher says that all the bands are donating their time and none is accepting a fee for its performance.

“It’s a chance to give back,” he said.

Hunter Fauber, the executive director of the Food Pantry, says the direness of the financial situation for many local families is only becoming evident now.
“It’s becoming awfully busy around here lately,” said Fauber, of Verona. “More and more people are coming in from the recent layoffs.”

Fauber says the small numbers of layoffs that have been occurring are now starting to add up to a larger number of people out of work.

The VCFP serves about 2,500 families a month. The center, located near the government center in Verona, is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday. In November, the center fed 6,898 local people. The facility covers the Waynesboro, Augusta County and Staunton areas.

“We have enough food to carry us through right now,” Fauber said. “Because the Food Bank empties out around Christmastime each year and has to start new again with the new year, we bought some extras to store up so that we aren’t empty-handed for those families that need us.

“People are so lost right now. They’ve lost their homes, their cars and their jobs. They just don’t know which way to turn. They are so depressed.”
Fauber’s job is getting so large, he had to obtain help from his brother-in-law, James Bell. Fauber says he couldn’t carry on his duties without Bell.

“We’re getting so large now that we’re training a third person to help out,” Bell said.

But none of the people working at VCFP receives a dime of remuneration.

“We take no pay for nothing,” Fisher said. “I look for people who have attained their goals already and want to give something back to the community. That’s who volunteers here.”

New walk-in freezers are also a big help to the facility.

“It helps us portion out the food better, because we can store it longer now,” Bell said.

Since all their assistance, monetary and food alike, comes from donations, they appreciate all the help they get.

“We’re never given Augusta County the credit they deserve,” Fauber said. “They give us this building to use, the dock, the parking lot, the heat and they don’t charge us rent. We just have to maintain it.”

The VCFP looks like a miniature Sam’s Club when you go in, with aisle upon aisle of food, old shopping carts for customers and those familiar plastic palettes that many food items are shipped upon.

“The county, they’ve been very good to us,” Fauber said. Other agencies the food pantry relies on include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many local retail supermarkets and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

“We try to buy by the trailer load,” Fauber said.

Monetary donations are beneficial to the agency as well as food donations.

This Saturday, Jimmy Fortune will play songs from his Christmas album in a concert at the Weyers Cave Community Center at 7 p.m. The event, with a free-will offering accepted as admittance, is no longer offering tickets.

But for one non-perishable food item and a new, unwrapped toy, there is plenty of room available at Eli’s Fun Center to see bands including Nathan Neff and Rick Cash, Brace for Impact, First Offense, Lost Souls at Zero, No Bounderies, SP511, Free Spirit, Occums Razor, Razor Blaid, Periscope, Chris Winter, JK47 and Time Machine; magic by Bryantdini; face painting by Tim Fisher; and an appearance by Santa Claus.

Says Fisher, “Where else can someone see this many bands for a can of soup and a toy?”