Feeding Southwest Virginia celebrates 45 years, founder Pamela Irvine's retirement (copy) (copy)
In the sunny parking lot of Feeding Southwest Virginia’s Salem distribution center, local and state officials gathered to celebrate the food bank’s 45 year anniversary — and the retirement of its founder and leader, Pamela Irvine.
“Feeding Southwest Virginia is a great institution, and it takes all of the people here and thousands of others from here all the way down to the coal fields to make it work,” U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said during the celebrations. “But all of us stand on the shoulders of a giant.”
Irvine announced in March that she will be retiring at the end of the year after 45 years at the nonprofit’s helm. In that time, she has served as an advocate in the fight against food insecurity, pushing for policy at the state and federal level.
“Perhaps more than anyone else in Virginia's history, Pamela has helped ensure that hunger is a bipartisan issue, and that's reflected here today,” said Eddie Oliver, the executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, in his speech “Her authenticity, command of issues and, more than anything, her love for the families that she serves has inspired action from the highest levels of government for 45 years.”
Thursday’s celebration included speeches from Griffith and Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, a video of thanks from U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and a letter of congratulations from Gov. Abigail Spanberger, all recognizing Irvine for her work. But when host and WDBJ anchor Logan Sherrill tried to thank Irvine once more for her service, she interrupted: “Can we thank all of us?”
“I feel so blessed to be here, a small part of a work that we've all done together,” Irvine said in her remarks. “And I thank God for carrying us through the tough times. Man, we had some tough times.”
When she started the food bank, Irvine had to convince a friend to lend her a truck to transport food, which promptly caught fire on the road. It operated out of a former commercial laundry building, and there were times when it couldn’t make payroll or pay its bills. Anonymous donations kept it afloat as it distributed 1 million pounds of food a year.
That number has grown to 20.5 million pounds of food distributed, feeding roughly 127,000 people on average every month, according to its 2025 impact report.
The food bank now operates distribution centers in Salem and Abingdon. It also opened the Community Solutions Center in Roanoke, which will be renamed in Irvine’s honor, Feeding Southwest Virginia board chair Jim Pearman announced Thursday.
“We feel like that this was a dream Pam had, and we couldn't think of a better way to honor her service to Feeding Southwest Virginia than to have her name associated with the Community Solutions Center from now on,” Pearman told attendees.
As for her successor, Irvine told The Roanoke Times afterward that the board had met earlier that morning and will be making an announcement soon.
“I look forward to working with the new CEO and transferring 45 years of knowledge and some ‘what to do and not to do’ things,” she said.
But Irvine is not moving on from the cause. She told Griffith and Cline during her remarks that they might still see her advocating in the halls of Congress, and she added in an interview that she’ll be ready to act if called upon by the Feeding America Network, a network of food banks Feeding Southwest Virginia is part of.
Virginians shouldn’t be done either, she said.
“Fifty-five percent of the people in our service area are food insecure. Now is not the time to stop,” she told media. “We need volunteers. We need financial contributors, group donors, we need partner programs. We need everyone to help us continue this work.”
