Thousands of cars travel back and forth on Iron Bridge Road each day. If it is a Friday afternoon there you will witness a long line of cars waiting at the entrance of the Chesterfield Food Bank, where they will pick up bags of food to get through the week. Sometimes the line of cars reaches as far as a mile.
The Marr family, which lives near the food bank, sees it each Friday. The long lines had an impact on 11-year-old, Gabriel, who goes by Gabe. When challenged by a leadership training program created by his pastor, Garrett Oppel – to cultivate a desire for the kids to want to serve their community – Gabe knew he wanted to somehow help the food bank. Establishing a fundraising goal of $1,000, Gabe reached his goal and gained some life experience. He presented a check in the amount of $1,050.52 to the food bank Sept. 25. Gabe and his whole family ended up volunteering to help distribute the food, and they decided that this is how they wanted to spend more Friday’s in the future.
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- Gabriel “Gabe” Marr volunteers his time at the Chesterfield Food Bank.
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- Gabe getting a tour of the food bank.
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- Gabe and Hannah at the food bank.
Gabe was able to reach his goal in two weeks. He reached out to all the Sunday school classes at his church, used social media, and set up a GoFundMe page.
” It wasn’t difficult because people were really generous and encouraged me,” he said. “I felt [as if]all the hard work paid off. Sometimes it might be hard to ask people for money, and it is work, but in the end, it pays off for all the people [who]need it.”
After the presentation, Kim Piper Hill, food bank executive encouraged Gabe and his family to help with the food distribution. Gabe and his sister, eight-year-old Hannah, were the youngest of the volunteers to serve the 400 families in line. Registration for the Friday distribution at the Chester location is 4 p.m. with distribution starting at 5 p.m. but cars start lining up as early as 1 p.m.
“I felt successful and happy that I was able to please the Lord and help all the people I see waiting in those lines each week,” Gabe said. “Hannah said, when she was taking the eggs and flowers to the people in the drivers’ seats, ‘they kept saying thank you, and one lady even said she was starving for days.’ Hannah was sad to see how many people didn’t have the clothes they needed and the children were not as privileged as she was, but that just made her want to help them more.”
Gabe and his family attend Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, and he is a middle school student at Guardian Christian Academy. He encourages people to join in and serve and volunteer.
He said: “Please help the food bank, because if you are going through a hard time in life, the food bank will be there to help you by giving food to your family just [as]you would be helping other families now. God says to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Gabe said he looks forward to volunteering again at the food bank. “It makes me happy to see all the people have smiles on [their]faces and not go hungry,” he said. “We plan on volunteering regularly.”
Gabe has also volunteered at Dunlop House in Colonial Heights, First Baptist Church Feed the Hungry Kitchen in Hopewell and an assisted living facility for veterans in Richmond.
His favorite subject in school is history, and he participates in baseball, basketball, swimming, golf, and football. He would like to continue playing football in college and study engineering or join the Air Force.
Gabe is the son of Kenneth and Lysandra Marr.
Along with the weekly food distribution at Chester, the food bank distributes food at six addition locations, they are: the Jeff Davis location at the Kingsland Family Life Center at 8801 Perrymont Road the 1st and 3rd Mondays; Hull Street location at Journey Church, 3700 Price Club Drive, the 2nd and 4th Mondays; Hopkins Road Elementary, 1st Saturday of each month; Davis Elementary, 2nd Saturday; Ettrick/Matoaca area at VSU Multi-Purpose Center, the 3rd Saturday; and Chalkley Elementary the 4th Saturday.
The food bank needs volunteers as much as they need monetary donations. Representatives from the food bank did not respond before press time. A statement from their Facebook reads: “The need in our community is a reality that so many pre-COVID never thought they would experience. So many that were ‘comfortable’ are now facing uncertainty. So many [who]never thought they would need help are now facing food insecurity. Everyone has a story, we hear some of them, and others go untold but the tears in their eyes as they receive a cart full of food say more than words ever could.”
ecurring donations can be set-up at www.chesterfieldfoodbank.org. Volunteer opportunities can be found at the food bank’s Facebook page.
