BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
The Bradford Food Pantry just underwent its second name change, but it’ll be the last as the new name is a testament to the dedication and passion of a man who’s devoted so much of his life to community service, with a special emphasis on feeding the hungry.
On June 9, during a dedication of the building the food pantry has been in since 2017 (2226 N. Temple Ave.), a sign was unveiled to reveal its new name: Colonel Arley W. McRae Bradford Food Pantry.
Food pantry board member Betty Warren described McRae as the backbone of the organization.
“I’ve been at the pantry a long time, and I’ve worked closely with Arley for many years,” she said. “I don’t think the pantry would exist — definitely not as it does today — if it had not been for Arley.”
During the ceremony, Bob Milner, the president of the food pantry’s board of directors, gave kudos to all the people who volunteer at the and described what the food pantry has been able to do with people’s generous monetary donations, such as purchasing trailers to pick up food.
Warren said there was a time when McRae, without the benefit of a trailer or even a large vehicle, would pick up food by himself. It wasn’t surprising for volunteers to show up and find food that McRae had picked up and dropped off.
“It was like Christmas morning,” Warren said. “We never knew what Arley was going to bring in.”
McRae’s active involvement with the food pantry was affected by two strokes he suffered on Aug. 21, 2013, leaving him confined to a wheelchair. Don’t think his heart still isn’t in the organization, though. He attended the grand-opening ceremony the food pantry hosted in 2017 after its move into its current location and was present again for this most recent dedication ceremony, leaving his home for the first time since the pandemic.
Warren and Milner did most of the speaking at the ceremony, but McRae, who’ll turn 88 on July 31, did take the time to say a few words when he introduced one of the people in attendance: Bill Brown, the founder of The Children’s Table in Bronson. The Children’s Table, which supplies emergency food to people in need, tries to serve 10 counties, Brown said.
McRae referred to Brown as “one of the best food givers ever.”
Of course, Warren didn’t want the surprise guest of honor (as the name change of the food pantry was kept a secret) to forget the large role he played as a food giver in his home community.
“Arley, I hope you know what you got started and supported and kept running,” Warren said, adding, “We want to honor you today and recognize all that you did for so many years.”
McRae would tell you that his efforts and those of everyone who have been involved with or supported the food pantry in some way have gone toward simply doing what’s right — helping out your fellow man. In speaking at the Sept. 6, 2017, grand-opening ceremony, McRae summed his feelings up by quoting Matthew 25:35-40 and encouraging those in attendance to also go home and read it themselves: “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
“The mission statement of the Bradford Food Pantry is to share the love of God and Jesus Christ through feeding the hungry in the Bradford and Union County area according to scripture,” Milner said, adding, “We do our part and leave the rest to God. In other words, work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on Him. If you do both of those, your needs will be supplied.
“I can tell you that has been the case.”
Givers, volunteers
Thanks to a numerous individuals, organizations and businesses, the food pantry has been in existence for 33 years. As Milner put it during the June 9 dedication, “Without all of our donors of food and finances and our volunteers…there is no food pantry feeding thousands of families a year.”
The donations of money and food is easy to understand, but the volunteers are crucial to the operation. They sort the food items and prepare them for distribution, which takes place on a drive-up basis every Friday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Volunteers also drive to pick up food from places such as Walmart and Winn-Dixie, the Waste Not Want Not, Farm Share and Feeding Northeast Florida food distributors, and Davis Express, which receives food donations from various companies.
“These folks are here four or five days a week,” Milner said of the volunteers.
Thanks to donations and the effort of the volunteers, the pantry has served more than 87,000 different Bradford County families since its inception.
“Some of them came in once. Some of them came every time they could,” Warren said.
Those families consisted of 226,000 individuals.
The food pantry began supplying food to people from Union County approximately four years ago, resulting in 4,420 families from that area being fed.
Warren said 27 percent of the families the food pantry has served included somebody over 62 years of age, 38 percent included somebody who’s disabled, 8 percent included a veteran and 29 percent included children.
“You all are reaching these people by your donations and your time,” Warren said.
Milner said various churches support the food pantry — and that support is appreciated, of course — but he specifically gave kudos to First Christian Church of Starke, which he described as “one of the most supportive organizations we have had for many years, individually and collectively as a church.”
“We literally could not have done without First Christian Church,” Milner said. “There were several times when we were low on cash — we never asked them for anything, but they showed up like angels.”
The food pantry’s first home was a building of approximately 900 square feet on Andrews Street — off U.S. 301 on the opposite side of Powell’s Dairy Freeze. It didn’t offer much space for food and volunteers.
“Somehow, Arley and (then Food Director Gerald) Moody and Betty and all of them made it work in that little building,” Milner said. “That is such a testament to all those volunteers.”
The building the food pantry is in now is owned by the state. It used to house Gold Key and had sat vacant when that business closed at the end of 2015. Moody went to the local offices of Rep. Bobby Payne and then Sen. Rob Bradley, explaining how desperately the food pantry needed a bigger building and how the site of the former Gold Key could suit its needs.
“Within a matter of weeks, we had this building,” Milner said.
It doesn’t cost the food pantry anything to use the building, but, of course, there are costs for such things as utilities and ongoing renovations. Add to that the purchase of items (refrigerators, freezers, a generator, trailers, etc.) to help the food pantry better serve its customers, and you can see how important monetary donations have been.
“Your donations help us pay our insurance, utilities, pest control and repairs and replacement of equipment,” Milner said. “We bought two small trailers — one of which is enclosed — for picking up food from various organizations.
“None of this, again, would be possible without the consistent support of our donors, some of whom continue to give every year, frequently in honor or in memory of a loved one.”
The Colonel Arley W. McRae Bradford Food Pantry could use more volunteers, especially those who are younger who can more easily work in the heat as well as do some heavy lifting.
If interested, please call 904-964-3984.
